Well, indeed, I am more interested in what is done with the data after such experiments...
Instead of wondering what we think we know about the role of chemical modifications of DNA (like methylation), I am (at this moment) more interested in learning what bioinformatics methods have been used to study this phenomena. I can imagine having to link DNA sequence databases to other resources, perhaps using protein-DNA interaction software to model the effect of methylation on the complexation, etc.
Therefore: what bioinformatics methods have been performed to study DNA methylation data (or of other chemical modifications)?
3 answers
What is done after, depends on the question posed: A recent review paper highlights many of these.
See also the papers I cited in this thread for some computational techniques performed on MAP-seq (somewhat akin to chip-seq) data.
If you are working on bisulphite sequencing data then there are new sets of problems. A good start is the Bismark program
The standard genomics technique for studying DNA methlyation is Methylated DNA immunoprecipitation (MeDIP) coupled with arrays or high throughput sequencing. Of course this is not a 100% bioinformatics methodology if that is what you are looking for.
Try Down et al's Bayesian deconvolution strategy for immunoprecipitation-based DNA methylome analysis, called Batman
Based on my own early exposure to these methods medDIP feels a bit like coming back a full circle to microarrays; instead of gene expression variation we deal with methylation level changes. I would imagine that a lot of the microarray approaches would work after adapting them.
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