Targeted bisulfite sequencing to profile age-associated DNA methylation changes in Xenopus frogs

Here we present clear patterns of age-associated changes in DNA methylation in the aquatic vertebrate species Xenopus tropicalis. We selected approximately 3500 sites highly correlated with age from WGBS data from 9 frogs of 3 different age groups (young, approx. 1 year old; mature, approx. 5 years old; old, approx. 9 years old - GSE221656) and designed probes for the development of cost effective targeted bisulfite sequencing (TBSeq) assay. Here, we present the TBSeq assay in sixteen different frogs as a pilot experiment to validate our previous findings. Overall design: We have previously generated whole genome bisulfite sequencing (WGBS) profiles in nine Xenopus tropicalis samples representing young, mature and old adults to study how DNA methylation relates to aging in frogs (GSE221656). Here, we performed a pilot Targeted Bisulfite Sequencing (TBSeq) experiment to confirm the results in a different cohort.