Faculty Opinions recommendation of Tracing dynamic changes of DNA methylation at single-cell resolution.

Abstract Ependymoma represents a heterogeneous disease affecting the entire neuraxis. Extensive molecular profiling efforts have identified molecular ependymoma subgroups based on DNA methylation. However, the intratumoral heterogeneity and developmental origins of these groups are only partially understood, and effective treatments are still lacking for about 50% of patients with high-risk tumors. We interrogated the cellular architecture of ependymoma using single cell/nucleus RNA-sequencing to analyze 24 tumor specimens across major molecular subgroups and anatomic locations. We additionally analyzed ten patient-derived ependymoma cell models and two patient-derived xenografts (PDXs). Interestingly, we identified an analogous cellular hierarchy across all ependymoma groups, originating from undifferentiated neural stem cell-like populations towards different degrees of impaired differentiation states comprising neuronal precursor-like, astro-glial-like, and ependymal-like tumor cells. While prognostically favorable ependymoma groups predominantly harbored differentiated cell populations, aggressive groups were enriched for undifferentiated subpopulations. Projection of transcriptomic signatures onto an independent bulk RNA-seq cohort stratified patient survival even within known molecular groups, thus refining the prognostic power of DNA methylation-based profiling. Furthermore, we identified novel potentially druggable targets including IGF- and FGF-signaling within poorly prognostic transcriptional programs. Ependymoma-derived cell models/PDXs widely recapitulated the transcriptional programs identified within fresh tumors and are leveraged to validate identified target genes in functional follow-up analyses. Taken together, our analyses reveal a developmental hierarchy and transcriptomic context underlying the biologically and clinically distinct behavior of ependymoma groups. The newly characterized cellular states and underlying regulatory networks could serve as basis for future therapeutic target identification and reveal biomarkers for clinical trials.

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EpiScanpy: integrated single-cell epigenomic analysis

10.1101/648097 ◽

2019 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Anna Danese ◽

Maria L. Richter ◽

David S. Fischer ◽

Fabian J. Theis ◽

Maria Colomé-Tatché

Keyword(s):

Dna Methylation ◽

Single Cell ◽

Large Scale ◽

Feature Space ◽

Rna Seq ◽

Computational Framework ◽

Learning Techniques ◽

Multiple Feature ◽

The Many ◽

Cell Data

ABSTRACTEpigenetic single-cell measurements reveal a layer of regulatory information not accessible to single-cell transcriptomics, however single-cell-omics analysis tools mainly focus on gene expression data. To address this issue, we present epiScanpy, a computational framework for the analysis of single-cell DNA methylation and single-cell ATAC-seq data. EpiScanpy makes the many existing RNA-seq workflows from scanpy available to large-scale single-cell data from other -omics modalities. We introduce and compare multiple feature space constructions for epigenetic data and show the feasibility of common clustering, dimension reduction and trajectory learning techniques. We benchmark epiScanpy by interrogating different single-cell brain mouse atlases of DNA methylation, ATAC-seq and transcriptomics. We find that differentially methylated and differentially open markers between cell clusters enrich transcriptome-based cell type labels by orthogonal epigenetic information.

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Dynamic DNA Methylation in Plant Growth and Development

International Journal of Molecular Sciences ◽

10.3390/ijms19072144 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 19 (7) ◽

pp. 2144 ◽

Cited By ~ 59

Author(s):

Arthur Bartels ◽

Qiang Han ◽

Pooja Nair ◽

Liam Stacey ◽

Hannah Gaynier ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Dna Methylation ◽

Plant Growth ◽

Growth And Development ◽

Genome Stability ◽

Epigenetic Modification ◽

Plant Growth And Development ◽

Complex Dynamic ◽

Dynamic Changes ◽

The Common ◽

Methylation Patterns

DNA methylation is an epigenetic modification required for transposable element (TE) silencing, genome stability, and genomic imprinting. Although DNA methylation has been intensively studied, the dynamic nature of methylation among different species has just begun to be understood. Here we summarize the recent progress in research on the wide variation of DNA methylation in different plants, organs, tissues, and cells; dynamic changes of methylation are also reported during plant growth and development as well as changes in response to environmental stresses. Overall DNA methylation is quite diverse among species, and it occurs in CG, CHG, and CHH (H = A, C, or T) contexts of genes and TEs in angiosperms. Moderately expressed genes are most likely methylated in gene bodies. Methylation levels decrease significantly just upstream of the transcription start site and around transcription termination sites; its levels in the promoter are inversely correlated with the expression of some genes in plants. Methylation can be altered by different environmental stimuli such as pathogens and abiotic stresses. It is likely that methylation existed in the common eukaryotic ancestor before fungi, plants and animals diverged during evolution. In summary, DNA methylation patterns in angiosperms are complex, dynamic, and an integral part of genome diversity after millions of years of evolution.

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