Invertebrate DNA methylation and gene regulation

Abstract

As human activity alters the planet, there is a pressing need to understand how organisms adapt to environmental change. Of growing interest in this area is the role of epigenetic modifications, such as DNA methylation, in tailoring gene expression to fit novel conditions. Here, we reanalyzed nine invertebrate (Anthozoa and Hexapoda) datasets to validate a key prediction of this hypothesis: changes in DNA methylation in response to some condition correlate with changes in gene expression. While we detected both differential methylation and differential expression, there was no simple relationship between these differences. Hence, if changes in DNA methylation regulate invertebrate transcription, the mechanism does not follow a simple linear relationship.