Complex Genomic Patterns of Abasic Sites in Mammalian DNA Revealed by High-Resolution SSiNGLe-AP Method

DNA damage plays critical role in biology and disease, however, precise understanding of how different types of DNA damage affect cellular functions is far from clear. A major underlying reason for this is paucity of high-resolution methods that can map locations of different types of DNA damage in complex genomes such as those of mammals. Here, we present development and validation of SSiNGLe-AP method that can map a common type of DNA damage, abasic (AP) sites, genome-wide and with high-resolution. We applied this method to six different tissues of mice of different ages and human cancer cell lines. We found non-random distribution of AP sites in mammalian genome that exhibits dynamic enrichment at specific genomic locations, and is significantly influenced by gene expression, age and especially by tissue-type. Overall, these results suggest that we are at the very beginning of understanding the true complexities of genomic patterns of DNA damage. Development of high-resolution SSiNGLe-AP method to map AP sites genome-wide and its application to reveal genomic patterns of AP sites in different mouse tissues of different ages