Differential DNA methylation in discrete developmental stages of the parasitic nematode Trichinella spiralis

TY - JOUR

T1 - Differential DNA methylation in discrete developmental stages of the parasitic nematode Trichinella spiralis

AU - Gao, Fei

AU - Liu, Xiaolei

AU - Wu, Xiu-Ping

AU - Wang, Xue-Lin

AU - Gong, Desheng

AU - Lu, Hanlin

AU - Xia, Yudong

AU - Song, Yanxia

AU - Wang, Junwen

AU - Du, Jing

AU - Liu, Siyang

AU - Han, Xu

AU - Tang, Yizhi

AU - Yang, Huanming

AU - Jin, Qi

AU - Zhang, Xiuqing

AU - Liu, Mingyuan

PY - 2012

Y1 - 2012

N2 - BACKGROUND: DNA methylation plays an essential role in regulating gene expression under a variety of conditions and it has therefore been hypothesized to underlie the transitions between life cycle stages in parasitic nematodes. So far, however, 5'-cytosine methylation has not been detected during any developmental stage of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Given the new availability of high-resolution methylation detection methods, an investigation of life cycle methylation in a parasitic nematode can now be carried out.RESULTS: Here, using MethylC-seq, we present the first study to confirm the existence of DNA methylation in the parasitic nematode Trichinella spiralis, and we characterize the methylomes of the three life-cycle stages of this food-borne infectious human pathogen. We observe a drastic increase in DNA methylation during the transition from the new born to mature stage, and we further identify parasitism-related genes that show changes in DNA methylation status between life cycle stages.CONCLUSIONS: Our data contribute to the understanding of the developmental changes that occur in an important human parasite, and raises the possibility that targeting DNA methylation processes may be a useful strategy in developing therapeutics to impede infection. In addition, our conclusion that DNA methylation is a mechanism for life cycle transition in T. spiralis prompts the question of whether this may also be the case in any other metazoans. Finally, our work constitutes the first report, to our knowledge, of DNA methylation in a nematode, prompting a re-evaluation of phyla in which this epigenetic mark was thought to be absent.

AB - BACKGROUND: DNA methylation plays an essential role in regulating gene expression under a variety of conditions and it has therefore been hypothesized to underlie the transitions between life cycle stages in parasitic nematodes. So far, however, 5'-cytosine methylation has not been detected during any developmental stage of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Given the new availability of high-resolution methylation detection methods, an investigation of life cycle methylation in a parasitic nematode can now be carried out.RESULTS: Here, using MethylC-seq, we present the first study to confirm the existence of DNA methylation in the parasitic nematode Trichinella spiralis, and we characterize the methylomes of the three life-cycle stages of this food-borne infectious human pathogen. We observe a drastic increase in DNA methylation during the transition from the new born to mature stage, and we further identify parasitism-related genes that show changes in DNA methylation status between life cycle stages.CONCLUSIONS: Our data contribute to the understanding of the developmental changes that occur in an important human parasite, and raises the possibility that targeting DNA methylation processes may be a useful strategy in developing therapeutics to impede infection. In addition, our conclusion that DNA methylation is a mechanism for life cycle transition in T. spiralis prompts the question of whether this may also be the case in any other metazoans. Finally, our work constitutes the first report, to our knowledge, of DNA methylation in a nematode, prompting a re-evaluation of phyla in which this epigenetic mark was thought to be absent.

KW - Alternative Splicing

KW - Animals

KW - Base Sequence

KW - Cytosine

KW - DNA

KW - DNA (Cytosine-5-)-Methyltransferase

KW - DNA Methylation

KW - Epigenesis, Genetic

KW - Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental

KW - High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing

KW - Molecular Sequence Data

KW - Muscles

KW - Phylogeny

KW - RNA, Messenger

KW - Sequence Analysis, DNA

KW - Trichinella spiralis

U2 - 10.1186/gb-2012-13-10-r100

DO - 10.1186/gb-2012-13-10-r100

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 23075480

SN - 1474-7596

VL - 13

JO - Genome Biology (Online Edition)

JF - Genome Biology (Online Edition)

IS - 10

M1 - R100

ER -