Temporal uncoupling of the DNA methylome and transcriptional repression during embryogenesis

DNA methylation is a tightly regulated epigenetic mark associated with transcriptional repression. Next-generation sequencing of purified methylated DNA obtained from early Xenopus tropicalis embryos demonstrates that this genome is heavily methylated during blastula and gastrula stages. Although DNA methylation is largely absent from transcriptional start sites marked with histone H3 lysine 4 trimethylation (H3K4me3), we find both promoters and gene bodies of active genes robustly methylated. By contrast, DNA methylation is absent in large H3K27me3 domains, indicating these two repression pathways have different roles. Comparison with chromatin state maps of human ES cells reveals strong conservation of epigenetic makeup and gene regulation between the two systems. Strikingly, genes that are highly expressed in human pluripotent cells and in Xenopus embryos but not in differentiated cells exhibit relatively high methylation in both promoters and gene bodies in embryos. Therefore we tested the repressive potential of DNA methylation using transient and transgenic approaches and show that methylated promoters are robustly transcribed in blastula and gastrula-stage embryos, but not in oocytes or late embryos where methylated templates are repressed efficiently. These findings have implications for reprogramming and the epigenetic regulation of pluripotency and differentiation, suggesting a relatively open, pliable chromatin state in early embryos followed by re-established methylation-dependent transcriptional repression during organogenesis and differentiation. MethylCap (methylated DNA affinity capture with the MBD domain of MeCP2), 500mM and 700mM elution fractions of stage 9 (blastula) and stage 12.5 (gastrula) Xenopus tropicalis DNA