Global methylation state at base-pair resolution of the Caulobacter genome throughout the cell cycle.
The Caulobacter DNA methyltransferase CcrM is one of five master cell-cycle regulators. CcrM is transiently present near the end of DNA replication when it rapidly methylates the adenine in hemimethylated GANTC sequences. The timing of transcription of two master regulator genes and two cell division genes is controlled by the methylation state of GANTC sites in their promoters. To explore the global extent of this regulatory mechanism, we determined the methylation state of the entire chromosome at every base pair at five time points in the cell cycle using single-molecule, real-time sequencing. The methylation state of 4,515 GANTC sites, preferentially positioned in intergenic regions, changed progressively from full to hemimethylation as the replication forks advanced. However, 27 GANTC sites remained unmethylated throughout the cell cycle, suggesting that these protected sites could participate in epigenetic regulatory functions. An analysis of the time of activation of every cell-cycle regulatory transcription start site, coupled to both the position of a GANTC site in their promoter regions and the time in the cell cycle when the GANTC site transitions from full to hemimethylation, allowed the identification of 59 genes as candidates for epigenetic regulation. In addition, we identified two previously unidentified N(6)-methyladenine motifs and showed that they maintained a constant methylation state throughout the cell cycle. The cognate methyltransferase was identified for one of these motifs as well as for one of two 5-methylcytosine motifs.
Department of Developmental Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305.
Jennifer B
JB
Kozdon
Michael D
MD
Melfi
Khai
K
Luong
Tyson A
TA
Clark
Matthew
M
Boitano
Susana
S
Wang
Bo
B
Zhou
Diego
D
Gonzalez
Justine
J
Collier
Stephen W
SW
Turner
Jonas
J
Korlach
Lucy
L
Shapiro
Harley H
HH
McAdams
D000225:Adenine / Q000378:metabolism; D001483:Base Sequence; D016934:Caulobacter / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D002453:Cell Cycle / Q000235:genetics*; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D019295:Computational Biology; D003596:Cytosine / Q000378:metabolism; D019175:DNA Methylation / Q000235:genetics*; D015964:Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics*; D016680:Genome, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics*; D007700:Kinetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
D003596:Cytosine; D000225:Adenine
DNA methylation; SMRT sequencing; methylome