Single-base resolution DNA methylomes of rice and functional roles of DNA methylation

To examine the rice genome methylation landscape and assess its functional significance, we generated the first single-base resolution genome methylation maps for Oryza sativa ssp. japonica, indica and their wild relatives, Oryza rufipogon and Oryza nivara. The methylation level of rice genomes is four times higher than that of Arabidopsis. Methylation in the promoter and gene body regions have similar patterns and effects on gene expression as those in Arabidopsis but different from a previous study on rice chromosomes 4 and 10. Most interestingly, we discovered for the first time that methylation in gene transcriptional termination regions can significantly repress gene expression, and the effect is even stronger than promoter methylation, which opens a new direction in the study of epigenetic regulation of gene expressions. Through integrated analysis of genetic, methylome and expression variation between cultivated and wild rice, we found that the genetic factor reflected by DNA variations may be the major determinant for methylation patterns at the whole-genome level and that methylation variation can only account for limited expression variation of genes between cultivated and wild rice. A single young panicle from each of the cultivated rice subspecies and the two wild rice species was ground in liquid nitrogen to fine powder using mortar and pestle. Total RNAs were isolated using the RNeasy Plant Mini Kit (Qiagen). DGE-tag libraries were constructed using the DGE-Tag Profiling NlaIII Sample Prep Kit (Illumina) according to the manufacturer's instructions. This submission represents the gene expression component of the study.