Differential Methylation of Genomic Regions in Juvenile and Adult Leaves Assessed By the Application of the MethylMnM Algorithm in the Non-Model Species Eucalyptus globulus Labill.

A change in the timing of developmental events throughout plants and animals ontogeny is referred to as heterochrony. This translates into ecological consequences and Eucalyptus globulus Labill. is a suitable plant species for study this biological process, as it presents a clear change of vegetative phase during the early years of growth. Also,  it has been shown that the timing of vegetative phase change occurs under strong genetic control, but the molecular mechanisms involved are not clear. Epigenetic mechanisms such as DNA methylation should be involved in its control. To better understand the mechanisms of heterochrony in plants and, and to better assess the effects of epigenetic in breeding, a reliable high-throughput methods for genome-wide DNA methylation analysis is needed. Till now, the genome-wide DNA methylation maps of many model organisms has been reported, but the methylation pattern of non-model organisms like remains rarely studied. The methylation profiles determined by DNA sequencing of enriched genomic libraries, offer the opportunity to map and compare methylomes. One of the most widely method applied to measure DNA methylation is immunoprecipitation of methylated DNA followed by sequencing (MeDIP-seq). Another method is based in restriction enzymes sensitive to methylation more sequencing (MRE-seq). Here a computational approach that integrates data from these two different but complementary methods and predicts methylation differences between samples is presented. More than one hundred differentially methylated regions between juvenile and adult leaves of E. globulus were detected, many of these regions could be directly related to the process of heterochrony.