Analysis of DNA methylation in different chicken tissues with MSAP

Abstract

With methylation sensitive amplified polymorphism (MSAP), the DNA methylation levels and patterns of CCGG sites in genomes was analyzed among four different tissues and between parents and offsprings from three groups of adult chicken, White Leghorn, White Plymouth Rock, and their F1 hybrids. The results indicated that the degree of methylation was approximate 29.7% in muscle, 27.5% in liver, 27.5% in heart, and 26.1% in kidney. There was significantly different in the level of methylation in the 3 different groups and in 4 different tissues (P<0.05). The fully-methylated sites were less than the hemi-methylated sites among the 4 tissues, which was different from that of plants. The two tissue-specific MSAP fragments were isolated, sequenced, and characterized, both of which were located in the coding regions. These results clearly demonstrated that there was difference in the methylation level among various tissues and different groups, which suggested that the genetic factor may have effect on the individual methylation level.