Abstract
Seasonal timing of reproduction is an important fitness trait in many plants and animals but the underlying molecular mechanism for this trait is poorly known. DNA methylation is known to affect timing of reproduction in various organisms and is therefore a potential mechanism also in birds. Here we describe genome wide data aiming to detect temporal changes in methylation in relation to timing of breeding using artificial selection lines of great tits (Parus major) exposed to contrasting temperature treatments. Methylation levels of DNA extracted from erythrocytes were examined using reduced representation bisulfite sequencing (RRBS). In total, we obtained sequencing data from 63 libraries over four different time points from 16 birds with on average 20 million quality filtered reads per library. These data describe individual level temporal variation in DNA methylation throughout the breeding season under experimental temperature regimes and provides a resource for future studies investigating the role of temporal changes in DNA methylation in timing of reproduction.
Highlights
Background and SummaryIn seasonally varying environments, timing of reproduction is under strong selection, as individuals need to adjust the time of reproduction to favorable environmental conditions
While there are a number of ecological studies examining DNA methylation it is often difficult to rule out potential confounding factors behind observed methylation changes in natural populations
We used great tit blood samples from birds originating from a genomic selection experiment for early timing of breeding that were kept in climate-controlled aviaries[23]
Summary
Received: 24 July 2018 Accepted: 19 June 2019 Published: xx xx xxxx bisulfite sequencing. DNA methylation is known to affect timing of reproduction in various organisms and is a potential mechanism in birds. Methylation levels of DNA extracted from erythrocytes were examined using reduced representation bisulfite sequencing (RRBS). We obtained sequencing data from 63 libraries over four different time points from 16 birds with on average 20 million quality filtered reads per library. These data describe individual level temporal variation in DNA methylation throughout the breeding season under experimental temperature regimes and provides a resource for future studies investigating the role of temporal changes in DNA methylation in timing of reproduction
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