Methylation Changes During Soybean Seed Development

What methylation changes are occurring during seed development largely remains unknown. To uncover the possible role of DNA methylation throughout all of seed development - from fertilization through dormancy and post-germination in soybean, we characterized the methylome of whole seeds representing the differentiation (GLOB and COT stages), maturation (early- [EM], mid- [B1] and late- [AA1] maturation stages), dormancy (DRY stage), and post-germination (seedling) phases of soybean seed development using Illumina sequencing. In addition, we characterized the methylome of the cotyledons of germinated seedling to examine methylation differences before and after germination. Overall design: Illumina sequencing of bisulfite-converted genomic DNA from globular stage (GLOB), cotyledon-stage (COT), early-maturation stage (EM), mid-maturation stage (B1), and late-maturation stage (AA1), pre-dormancy stage 1 (AA2), pre-dormancy stage 2 (AA3), dormancy stage (DRY) seeds, and post-germination seedling (SDLG), seedling cotyledons (SDLG-COT).