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. 2014 Aug;9(8):1184-93.
doi: 10.4161/epi.29676. Epub 2014 Jul 7.

Aberrant signature methylome by DNMT1 hot spot mutation in hereditary sensory and autonomic neuropathy 1E

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Aberrant signature methylome by DNMT1 hot spot mutation in hereditary sensory and autonomic neuropathy 1E

Zhifu Sun et al. Epigenetics. 2014 Aug.

Abstract

DNA methyltransferase 1 (DNMT1) is essential for DNA methylation, gene regulation and chromatin stability. We previously discovered DNMT1 mutations cause hereditary sensory and autonomic neuropathy type 1 with dementia and hearing loss (HSAN1E; OMIM 614116). HSAN1E is the first adult-onset neurodegenerative disorder caused by a defect in a methyltransferase gene. HSAN1E patients appear clinically normal until young adulthood, then begin developing the characteristic symptoms involving central and peripheral nervous systems. Some HSAN1E patients also develop narcolepsy and it has recently been suggested that HSAN1E is allelic to autosomal dominant cerebellar ataxia, deafness, with narcolepsy (ADCA-DN; OMIM 604121), which is also caused by mutations in DNMT1. A hotspot mutation Y495C within the targeting sequence domain of DNMT1 has been identified among HSAN1E patients. The mutant DNMT1 protein shows premature degradation and reduced DNA methyltransferase activity. Herein, we investigate genome-wide DNA methylation at single-base resolution through whole-genome bisulfite sequencing of germline DNA in 3 pairs of HSAN1E patients and their gender- and age-matched siblings. Over 1 billion 75-bp single-end reads were generated for each sample. In the 3 affected siblings, overall methylation loss was consistently found in all chromosomes with X and 18 being most affected. Paired sample analysis identified 564,218 differentially methylated CpG sites (DMCs; P<0.05), of which 300 134 were intergenic and 264 084 genic CpGs. Hypomethylation was predominant in both genic and intergenic regions, including promoters, exons, most CpG islands, L1, L2, Alu, and satellite repeats and simple repeat sequences. In some CpG islands, hypermethylated CpGs outnumbered hypomethylated CpGs. In 201 imprinted genes, there were more DMCs than in non-imprinted genes and most were hypomethylated. Differentially methylated region (DMR) analysis identified 5649 hypomethylated and 1872 hypermethylated regions. Importantly, pathway analysis revealed 1693 genes associated with the identified DMRs were highly associated in diverse neurological disorders and NAD+/NADH metabolism pathways is implicated in the pathogenesis. Our results provide novel insights into the epigenetic mechanism of neurodegeneration arising from a hotspot DNMT1 mutation and reveal pathways potentially important in a broad category of neurological and psychological disorders.

Keywords: DNA methylation; HSAN1E; OMIM 604121; OMIM 614116; neurodegeneration; whole genome bisulfite sequencing.

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Figures

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Figure 1. Study design and analysis workflow. Three pairs of affected (with DNMT1 mutation and HSAN1) and unaffected siblings (without DNMT1 mutation and HSAN1) were selected from three different families of the same kinship. The sibling pairs were matched for age (<5 y) and gender. WGBS was performed on peripheral lymphocyte cells and DMCs and DMRs were identified by paired analyses. Genes with DMRs 5 kb from theTSS were used for pathway enrichment analysis. A1-A3, affected individuals with DNMT1 mutation; U1-U3, unaffected siblings without DNMT1 mutation.
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Figure 2. Genome coverage and overall methylation patterns. (A) Captured Cs in CpG context at different depths of coverage. Almost all CpGs in the genome were covered; however, CpGs with at least 10X coverage accounted for about 1/3 of ~30million CpGs in the genome. (B) Overall mean methylation was reduced by 0.3–3% in affected individuals (A1–3) relative to unaffected controls (U1–3;). (C) Methylation distribution of genic CpGs by sample. The affected had slightly lower methylation than their unaffected siblings. The horizontal bar within each box is the median methylation for the sample. (D) Methylation distribution of intergenic CpGs by sample. The affected patients had lower methylation than unaffected individuals and the differences were greater than in genic regions. The horizontal bar within each box is the median methylation for the sample. (E) CGI and repeat region methylation. CGI methylation was low (~30%) across all samples with little difference between samples while methylation in repeat regions (Alu, L1, L2, satellite, and simple repeats) was higher (≥70%). The affected patients consistently had lower methylation (1–5% reduction) than their unaffected siblings. (F) Methylation difference between sibling pairs in CGIs and repeat elements. All repeat elements but not CGIs had lower methylation in the affected individuals with Pair 1 (P1) displaying the smallest differences.
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Figure 3. (A) Unsupervised clustering using the top 126 000 varied CpGs shows the affected and unaffected samples form different clusters, suggesting the similar methylation patterns by mutation status. (B) Unsupervised clustering using top 10 000 highly varied CpGs shows samples are clustered by family, indicating the strong genetic influence on DNA methylation.
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Figure 4. Methylation by chromosome. (A) DMCs are plotted for each chromosome separately. All show the dominant hypo-DMCs with chromosome X changed the most. Y-axis: The distribution of methylation mean difference between affected and unaffected individuals. (B) Chromosome X CpG methylation distribution. Affected patients (red) have more obvious reduced methylation than the unaffected (green) for all pairs. (C) Density plot of CpG methylation for chromosome X for each sample. Affected patients have left-shifted (decreased) methylation ratio curves. Solid line: patients with mutation; Dashed lines: sibling controls without mutation. Red lines: A1, A2; Green lines: A2, U2; Blue lines: A3, U3.
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Figure 5. DMC distribution in different genomic regions. (A) DMCs occur across genomic regions; however, intergenic regions have higher percentage of hypomethylated CpGs than genic regions. (B) Hypomethylation around transcription start site (TSS). All genes are aligned around TSS and average methylation is displayed separately for affected (red) and unaffected (green) subjects. (C) DMCs in different genomic features of genic regions. All regions except CpG islands have more hypo-methylated DMCs in the affected individuals. (D) DMCs in different genomic features of intergenic regions. All have more hypo-methylated DMCs in the affected individuals. X-axis, genomic region; y-axis, percentage of hypermethylated (purple bars) and hypomethylated DMCs (green bars).
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Figure 6. DMR distribution in the genome and DNA methylation in histone marks. (A) Most DMRs are hypomethylated for both genic and intergenic regions; however, this is much more dramatic in intergenic regions (82% vs. 62%). (B) Median methylation difference in different histone mark region between the affected and unaffected individuals. Hypomethylation is observed in H3K27me3, H3K9me3, and CTCF sites.

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