Exploring nonlinear DNA methylation dynamics in aging mice
Presentation by Maja Olecka and Alena van Bömmel, Jena
Time: 11:15–11:45
Although DNA methylation is the best studied epigenetic mark in the context of aging, little is known about its dynamics during lifespan. The choice of methodology and time points in most aging-related studies allows for the detection of linear changes or restricts analysis to a comparison between young and old states, ignoring the trajectories throughout the life course.
Here, we explored nonlinear aspects of DNA methylation dynamics in aging mice. To this end, we performed genome-wide DNA methylation profiling with reduced representation bisulfite sequencing of 83 colon samples from mice at five ages. Our study indicates the existence of hypermethylation events which take place over short time periods and divide lifespan into three stages. Moreover, based on clusters of nonlinearly modified cytosines, we build a novel clock-like classifier STageR which accurately predicts the epigenetic stage of life. STageR reduces the feature space from several thousands of CpG sites to only 3 cluster centroids and is thereby easily transferable to different datasets.