Widespread conservation and lineage-specific diversification of genome-wide DNA methylation patterns across arthropods
File(s)
Published version
OA Location
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Cytosine methylation is an ancient epigenetic modification yet its function and extent within genomes is highly variable across eukaryotes. In mammals, methylation controls transposable elements and regulates the promoters of genes. In insects, DNA methylation is generally restricted to a small subset of transcribed genes, with both intergenic regions and transposable elements (TEs) depleted of methylation. The evolutionary origin and the function of these methylation patterns are poorly understood. Here we characterise the evolution of DNA methylation across the arthropod phylum. While the common ancestor of the arthropods had low levels of TE methylation and did not methylate promoters, both of these functions have evolved independently in centipedes and mealybugs. In contrast, methylation of the exons of a subset of transcribed genes is ancestral and widely conserved across the phylum, but has been lost in specific lineages. A similar set of genes is methylated in all species that retained exon-enriched methylation. We show that these genes have characteristic patterns of expression correlating to broad transcription initiation sites and well-positioned nucleosomes, providing new insights into potential mechanisms driving methylation patterns over hundreds of millions of years.
Date Issued
2020-06-01
Date Acceptance
2020-05-15
Citation
PLoS Genetics, 2020, 16 (6), pp.1-24
ISSN
1553-7390
Publisher
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Start Page
1
End Page
24
Journal / Book Title
PLoS Genetics
Volume
16
Issue
6
Copyright Statement
Copyright: © 2020 Lewis et al. This is an open
access article distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution License, which
permits unrestricted use, distribution, and
reproduction in any medium, provided the original
author and source are credited.
access article distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution License, which
permits unrestricted use, distribution, and
reproduction in any medium, provided the original
author and source are credited.
Sponsor
Medical Research Council
Identifier
http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000545728900001&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=1ba7043ffcc86c417c072aa74d649202
Grant Number
MC-A652-5PZ80-3203-0000-0000
Subjects
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Genetics & Heredity
GENE BODY METHYLATION
EVOLUTIONARY CONSEQUENCES
CHROMATIN
ALIGNMENT
PROMOTER
REVEALS
PLANTS
TRANSCRIPTION
ORGANIZATION
METHYLOME
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
ARTN e1008864
Date Publish Online
2020-06-25