Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
Brief Bioinform. 2018 Sep 28;19(5):754-764. doi: 10.1093/bib/bbx019.
DNA methylation, especially in promoter regions, is a well-characterized epigenetic marker related to gene expression regulation in eukaryotes. However, the role of intragenic DNA methylation in the usage of corresponding exons still remains elusive. In this study, we described the DNA methylome across 10 human tissues. The human genome showed both conserved and varied methylation levels among these tissues. We found that the methylation densities in promoters and first exons were negatively correlated with the corresponding gene expression level. Nevertheless, the methylation densities within introns, internal exons and down 1 kb regions showed weak correlation with gene expression levels. Importantly, we observed a remarkably positive relationship between methylation density and exon expression level of intragenic exons. Notably, skip-in exons were much more methylated than skip-out exons. We also identified 260 exons that showed both differential methylation levels and differential expression levels in lung cancer. Genes harboring these differentially regulated exons were significantly enriched in the cancer hallmark-related biological process. Moreover, a 10-exon signature was identified as a promising prognostic predictor for lung cancer. Our study illuminates the DNA methylome, describes its relationship with gene expression across human tissues and provides new insights into intragenic DNA methylation and exon usage during the transcriptional/alternative splicing process and in cancer.
DNA 甲基化,尤其是启动子区域的甲基化,是一种在真核生物中与基因表达调控相关的、特征明确的表观遗传标记。然而,基因内 DNA 甲基化在相应外显子使用中的作用仍不清楚。在本研究中,我们描述了 10 个人类组织中的 DNA 甲基组。人类基因组在这些组织中表现出保守和多样化的甲基化水平。我们发现,启动子和第一外显子的甲基化密度与相应的基因表达水平呈负相关。然而,内含子、内部外显子和下游 1kb 区域的甲基化密度与基因表达水平呈弱相关。重要的是,我们观察到基因内外显子的甲基化密度与外显子表达水平之间存在显著的正相关关系。值得注意的是,内含子跳过外显子的甲基化程度明显高于内含子保留外显子。我们还在肺癌中鉴定出 260 个表现出差异甲基化水平和差异表达水平的外显子。这些具有差异调控外显子的基因在癌症特征相关的生物学过程中显著富集。此外,一个由 10 个外显子组成的特征被确定为一种有前途的肺癌预后预测指标。我们的研究阐明了 DNA 甲基组,描述了它在人类组织中的基因表达之间的关系,并为基因内 DNA 甲基化和转录/可变剪接过程中外显子使用以及癌症中外显子使用提供了新的见解。