DNA methylation in the colon of Dnmt3b-induced and control mice

The methylation status of colon epithelial cells was profiled in wild type mice and mice expressing a Dnmt3b transgene.  Genome-scale methylation profiles were generated using reduced representation bisulfite sequencing (RRBS), with CpG methylation scored by promoter and also summarized by gene.  Dnmt3b expression is associated with a strong increase in de novo methylation of a discrete subset of "methylation sensitive" genes which show a strong concordance with genes methylated in human colon cancer.  These results, together with further analysis, indicate that colon epithelial cell methylation in the Dnmt3b mouse model predicts DNA methylation of human colon cancer with high confidence. Overall design: Three each of Dnmt3b-induced and control mice, each split into two fractions.