Whole-genome DNA methylation map of japanese macaque sperm. Macaca fuscata

It has been thought that epigenetic changes underlie the evolutionary divergence of phenotype between closely related species. However, the manner in which epigenetic changes are generated remains unknown. Although whole-genome DNA methylation profiles in some somatic tissues and sperm have been reported for humans and chimpanzees, a systematic analysis of these data has been lacking. In this manuscript, therefore, we analyzed these methylomes in detail, identified genomic regions with different DNA methylation levels, and examined the cell-type specificity and its association with changes in genomic sequence. Moreover, we generated a methylation map of Japanese macaque sperm and used it as an out-group to infer the evolutional history of methylation in these regions. Overall design: Genomic DNA was prepared by a standard procedure from sperm of a male Japanese macaque. The library for WGBS was constructed by the post-bisulfite adaptor tagging method, and subjected to 100-bp single-end sequencing on Illumina HiSeq1500.