Conservation of global DNA methylation patterns due to cell culture establishment from human melanoma tissue

Cell lines are a critical in vitro model and heavily used to unravel mechanisms of cancer cell biology. However, limited data is available to assess whether DNA methylation patterns in tissues are retained when cell lines are established. Here, we provide the first genome-scale sequencing-based methylation map of metastatic melanoma tumour tissues and their derivative cell lines. Overall design: Here we generated single-nucleotide resolution DNA methylation map of a total of 4 cell lines using Reduced Representation Bisulfite Sequencing (RRBS). We show that globally DNA methylation profiles are well conserved in vitro compared to their tissue of origin.