Epigenetic regulatory potential at the metagenomic and genomic scale
Date
2016
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Marine sediments harbor a vast amount of Earth’s microbial biomass, yet little is understood regarding how cells subsist in these low-energy environments. Since growth in these environments is expected to be slow because the overall energy pool is low, cells may require additional methods for conserving energy. Gene regulation is a potential necessity due to the high energy requirements of transcription, and this process could be influenced by epigenetic modification via DNA methylation. In this study, changes in the methylation states of CpG sites were profiled within metagenomes from an estuarine sediment core using a next-generation sequencing strategy. Additionally, the presence of epigenetic patterns and conserved sequence structures within gene promoter and coding regions was determined for microbial genomes representative of metagenome target taxa to determine how widespread these signatures may be. The results of this study suggest the presence of dynamic shifts in CpG methylation within these sediment microbial communities, as well as conserved trends in DNA methylation target motif frequency and intrinsic DNA curvature within known bacteria. The analyses of these phenomena further highlight the dynamic roles of epigenetic modifications within microbial genomes.