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SummaryTo understand what dictates the emerging patterns of de novo DNA methylation in the male germline, we mapped DNA methylation, chromatin, and transcription changes in purified fetal mouse germ cells by using methylated CpG island recovery assay (MIRA)-chip, chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP)-chip, and strand-specific RNA deep sequencing, respectively. Global de novo methylation occurred by default in prospermatogonia without any apparent trigger from preexisting repressive chromatin marks but was preceded by broad, low-level transcription along the chromosomes, including the four known paternally imprinted differentially methylated regions (DMRs). Default methylation was excluded only at precisely aligned constitutive or emerging peaks of H3K4me2, including most CpG islands and some intracisternal A particles (IAPs). Similarly, each maternally imprinted DMR was protected from default DNA methylation among highly methylated DNA by an H3K4me2 peak and transcription initiation at least in one strand. Our results suggest that the pattern of de novo DNA methylation in prospermatogonia is dictated by opposing actions of broad, low-level transcription and dynamic patterns of active chromatin.

5-methyl-C (5mC) and 5-hydroxymethyl-C (5hmC) are epigenetic marks with well known and putative roles in gene regulation, respectively. These two DNA covalent modifications cannot be distinguished by bisulfite sequencing or restriction digestion, the standard methods of 5mC detection. The methylated CpG island recovery assay (MIRA), however, specifically detects 5mC but not 5hmC. We further developed MIRA for the analysis of allele-specific CpG methylation at differentially methylated regions (DMRs) of imprinted genes. MIRA specifically distinguished between the parental alleles by capturing the paternally methylated H19/Igf2 DMR and maternally methylated KvDMR1 in mouse embryo fibroblasts (MEFs) carrying paternal and maternal duplication of mouse distal Chr7, respectively. MIRA in combination with multiplex single nucleotide primer extension (SNuPE) assays specifically captured the methylated parental allele from normal cells at a set of maternally and paternally methylated DMRs. The assay correctly recognized aberrant biallelic methylation in a case of loss-of imprinting. The MIRA-SNuPE assays revealed that placenta exhibited less DNA methylation bias at DMRs compared to yolk sac, amnion, brain, heart, kidney, liver and muscle. This method should be useful for the analysis of allele-specific methylation events related to genomic imprinting, X chromosome inactivation and for verifying and screening haplotype-associated methylation differences in the human population.

Genomic imprints—parental allele-specific DNA methylation marks at the differentially methylated regions (DMRs) of imprinted genes—are erased and reestablished in germ cells according to the individual's sex. Imprint establishment at paternally methylated germ line DMRs occurs in fetal male germ cells. In prospermatogonia, the two unmethylated alleles exhibit different rates of de novo methylation at the H19/Igf2 imprinting control region (ICR) depending on parental origin. We investigated the nature of this epigenetic memory using bisulfite sequencing and allele-specific ChIP–SNuPE assays. We found that the chromatin composition in fetal germ cells was biased at the ICR between the two alleles with the maternally inherited allele exhibiting more H3K4me3 and less H3K9me3 than the paternally inherited allele. We determined genetically that the chromatin bias, and also the delayed methylation establishment in the maternal allele, depended on functional CTCF insulator binding sites in the ICR. Our data suggest that, in primordial germ cells, maternally inherited allele-specific CTCF binding sets up allele-specific chromatin differences at the ICR. The erasure of these allele-specific chromatin marks is not complete before the process of de novo methylation imprint establishment begins. CTCF–dependent allele-specific chromatin composition imposes a maternal allele-specific delay on de novo methylation imprint establishment at the H19/Igf2 ICR in prospermatogonia., Author Summary Allele-specific DNA methylation is considered the primary mark that distinguishes the parental alleles of imprinted genes. Whereas allele-specific chromatin also exists at imprinted genes in the soma, this has not been assessed in the germ line. It will be important to understand what extent the chromatin composition provides clues in the germ line to the erasure and establishment of methylation imprints. Our novel methods provide the sensitivity required to answer these questions. Our results argue that the erasure of the DNA methylation imprint is complete before, and therefore does not depend on, the erasure of allele-specific chromatin marks at the H19/Igf2 imprint control region. Additionally, we show that incomplete erasure of the allele-specific chromatin is responsible for the delayed DNA methylation imprint establishment of the maternal ICR allele in prospermatogonia. The chromatin bias—the transient epigenetic memory of the mother—in fetal germ cells depends on functional CTCF insulator binding sites in this imprint control region.