Publications

DNA methylation is one of the most important epigenetic modifications in the regulation of gene transcription. The current gold standard to study this modification is bisulfite sequencing. Although multiple commercial bisulfite treatment kits provide good conversion efficiencies, DNA loss and especially DNA fragmentation remain troublesome. This hampers DNA methylation profiling of long DNA sequences. Here, we explored the performance of twelve ...

Neuroblastoma (NB) has been considered as a disease driven by genetic aberrations. However, recent studies have shown that the NB biology is also strongly determined by the epigenetic profile of the tumor, an important finding underscored by the fact that whole-genome sequencing of primary NB tumors revealed no highly recurrent mutations, apart from activating ALK mutations. By profiling the methylome of more than 100 primary NB tumors using ...

The methylation of cytosines shapes the epigenetic landscape of plant genomes, coordinates transgenerational epigenetic inheritance, represses the activity of transposable elements (TEs), affects gene expression and, hence, can influence the phenotype. Sugar beet (Beta vulgaris ssp. vulgaris), an important crop that accounts for 30% of worldwide sugar needs, has a relatively small genome size (758 Mbp) consisting of approximately 485 Mbp ...

Retrotransposons, or RNA intermediated transposable elements, have been considered as U+2018junkU+2019 or U+2018selfishU+2019 DNA and dismissed as uninteresting for a long time. However, they were found active and functional in preimplantation embryos in the last decades. The impact of retrotransposon activity on the genome such as formation of new genetic elements and regulators in the genome is unneglectable. They are also suggested to ...

Plentiful DNA methylation changes have been associated with the cellular response to anti-cancer therapeutic pressure. However, it has not systematically been assessed how these changes arise, whether and how they causally contribute to therapeutic resistance and what their impact in the clinic is. In this study, we therefore investigate if and how DNA methylation patterns can underlie the cellular expression and phenotype changes that allow ...

Introduction: It has been shown that procedures associated with assisted reproductive
technologies may interfere with epigenetic reprogramming of oocytes
and embryos.
After fertilisation the mammalian embryo undergoes a gradual genomewide
DNA demethylation, which results in relatively low DNA methylation
levels at the morula stage. Subsequently, DNA methylation is re-established
from the blastocyst stage onward. ...

Remodelling the methylome is a hallmark of mammalian development and cell differentiation. However, current knowledge of DNA methylation dynamics in human tissue specification and organ development largely stems from the extrapolation of studies in vitro and animal models. Here, we report on the DNA methylation landscape using the 450k array of four human tissues (amnion, muscle, adrenal and pancreas) during the first and second trimester of ...

DNA methylation is instrumental for gene regulation. Global changes in the epigenetic landscape have been recognized as a hallmark of cancer. However, the role of DNA methylation in epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) remains unclear. In this study, high-density genetic and DNA methylation data in white blood cells from the Framingham Heart Study (N = 1,595) were used to build genetic models to predict DNA methylation levels. These prediction models ...

Neural tube defects (NTDs), affecting 1-2 per 1000 pregnancies, are severe congenital malformations that arise from the failure of neurulation during early embryonic development. The methylation hypothesis suggests that folate prevents NTDs by stimulating cellular methylation reactions. Folate is central to the one-carbon metabolism that produces pyrimidines and purines for DNA synthesis and for the generation of the methyldonor ...