DNA methylation is an important epigenetic regulatory mechanism that influences genomic stability, gene activation, X-chromosome inactivation and other factors. A change in DNA methylation is usually associated with aging and cellular senescence. DNA methyltransferase 1(DNMT1) is the most abundant DNA methyltransferase, and it plays an important role in maintaining the established methylation pattern during DNA replication in vertebrates. Although the effect of aging on DNA methylation has been well studied in vertebrates, little research has been conducted in invertebrates, especially in marine bivalves. In this study, we examined global DNA methylation levels in four groups of adult Zhikong scallop Chlamys farreri at different ages. The results showed that both the age and tissue type had a strong effect on the DNA methylation. In addition, a significant decrease in DNA methylation with aging(1–4 years) can be detected in mantle, kidney and hepatopancreas. We further measured the change in DNMT1 transcript abundance using quantitative reverse transcription PCR(q RT-PCR), which revealed that DNMT1 transcription significantly decreased with aging in mantle and hepatopancreas and strongly correlated with DNA methylation(R = 0.72). Our data provided greater insight into the aging-related decline of DNA methylation, which could aid in gaining a better understanding of the relationship between DNA methylation and the aging process in bivalve mollusks.
LIAN ShanshanHE YanLI XueZHAO BosongHOU RuiHU XiaoliZHANG LinglingBAO Zhenmin
Zhikong scallop(Chlamys farreri) is an important maricultured species in China.Many researches on this species,such as population genetics and QTL fine-mapping,need a large number of molecular markers.In this study,based on the expressed sequence tags(EST),a total of 300 putative single nucleotide polymorphisms(SNPs) were selected and validated using high resolution melting(HRM) technology with unlabeled probe.Of them,101(33.7%) were found to be polymorphic in 48 individuals from 4 populations.Further evaluation with 48 individuals from Qingdao population showed that all the polymorphic loci had two alleles with the minor allele frequency ranged from 0.046 to 0.500.The observed and expected heterozygosities ranged from 0.000 to 0.925 and from 0.089 to 0.505,respectively.Fifteen loci deviated significantly from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium and significant linkage disequilibrate was detected in one pair of markers.BLASTx gave significant hits for 72 of the 101 polymorphic SNP-containing ESTs.Thirty four polymorphic SNP loci were predicted to be non-synonymous substitutions as they caused either the change of codons(33 SNPs) or pretermination of translation(1 SNP).The markers developed can be used for the population studies and genetic improvement on Zhikong scallop.
LI JiqinBAO ZhenminLI LingWANG XiaojianWANG ShiHU Xiaoli
单核苷酸多态性(Single nucleotide polymorphism—SNP)被认为是揭示遗传变异理想的分子标记,近几年来一系列针对高通量测序平台的技术如RAD,GBS,RRLs,2b-RAD等成为非模式生物尤其是水生动物的de novo SNP标记规模开发和大样本群体遗传研究的有利途径。本文从理论上讨论了测序错误和重复序列因素对de novo SNP分型的影响,并利用模式生物拟南芥RAD模拟数据对理论分析进行了验证。通过理论推导和模拟验证发现测序数据量在15～20X左右时单拷贝区域内SNP被检测的概率大于95%,等位基因的支持度不小于2时能够有效屏蔽掉测序错误对SNP分型的影响(假阳性低于2%),这些为实际数据的de novo SNP分型提供了理论上的指导。
