Methods And Targets Of DNA Methylation Entropy

Abstract

The present disclosure is based on the premise that epigenetic information defines tissue identity and is largely inherited in development through DNA methylation. While studied mostly for mean differences, methylation also encodes stochastic change, defined as entropy in information theory. Analyzing allele-specific methylation in forty-nine human tissue sample datasets, it was found that methylation entropy is associated with specific DNA binding motifs, regulatory DNA, and CpG density. Then applying information theory to 42 mouse embryo methylation datasets, it was found that the contribution of methylation entropy to time- and tissue-specific patterns of development is comparable to the contribution of methylation mean, and methylation entropy is associated with sequence and chromatin features conserved with human. Moreover, methylation entropy is directly related to gene expression variability in development, suggesting a role for epigenetic entropy in developmental plasticity.

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