RT Journal
A1 Zhao, Lei
A1 Sun, Ming-an
A1 Li, Zejuan
A1 Bai, Xue
A1 Yu, Miao
A1 Wang, Min
A1 Liang, Liji
A1 Shao, Xiaojian
A1 Arnovitz, Stephen
A1 Wang, Qianfei
A1 He, Chuan
A1 Lu, Xuemei
A1 Chen, Jianjun
A1 Xie, Hehuang
T1 The dynamics of DNA methylation fidelity during mouse embryonic stem cell self-renewal and differentiation
JF Genome Research 
JO Genome Research 
YR 2014 
FD August 01 
VO 24 
IS 8 
SP 1296 
OP 1307 
DO 10.1101/gr.163147.113 
UL http://genome.cshlp.org/content/24/8/1296.abstract 
AB The faithful transmission of DNA methylation patterns through cell divisions is essential for the daughter cells to retain a proper cell identity. To achieve a comprehensive assessment of methylation fidelity, we implemented a genome-scale hairpin bisulfite sequencing approach to generate methylation data for DNA double strands simultaneously. We show here that methylation fidelity increases globally during differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs), and is particularly high in the promoter regions of actively expressed genes and positively correlated with active histone modification marks and binding of transcription factors. The majority of intermediately (40%–60%) methylated CpG dinucleotides are hemi-methylated and have low methylation fidelity, particularly in the differentiating mESCs. While 5-hmC and 5-mC tend to coexist, there is no significant correlation between 5-hmC levels and methylation fidelity. Our findings may shed new light on our understanding of the origins of methylation variations and the mechanisms underlying DNA methylation transmission.