Skip to main content

Simple Quantification of Epigenetic DNA Modifications and DNA Damage on Multi-Well Slides

  • Protocol
  • First Online:
DNA Modification Detection Methods

Abstract

Chemical modifications of DNA bases have a major effect on the execution of the DNA code. The global amount of DNA modifications provides valuable information regarding various biological processes as well as for disease development. Therefore, development of simple and reliable methods to quantify these markers is of great importance. Here we describe in detail protocols for global quantification of DNA modifications. Specifically, we describe quantification of two types of epigenetic modifications, unmethylated CpGs and 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5-hmC), and two types of DNA damage lesions, oxidation and UV-induced damage. All methods are based on utilizing enzymatic recognition for covalent binding of a fluorescent dye to the DNA modification. Up to 90 labeled DNA samples are then loaded on a custom multi-well slide, which is imaged by a conventional slide scanner. The global amount of the measured modification can be calculated by the obtained fluorescence intensity.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Protocol
USD 49.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 109.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 249.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Liyanage VRB, Jarmasz JS, Murugeshan N et al (2014) DNA modifications: function and applications in normal and disease states. Biology 3:670–723

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Jones PA (2012) Functions of DNA methylation: islands, start sites, gene bodies and beyond. Nat Rev Genet 13:484–492

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Greenberg MVC, Bourc’his D (2019) The diverse roles of DNA methylation in mammalian development and disease. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 20:590–607

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Tahiliani M, Koh KP, Shen Y et al (2009) Conversion of 5-methylcytosine to 5-hydroxymethylcytosine in mammalian DNA by MLL partner TET1. Science 324:930–935

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Shi DQ, Ali I, Tang J et al (2017) New insights into 5hmC DNA modification: generation, distribution and function. Front Genet 8:100

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Ficz G, Branco MR, Seisenberger S et al (2011) Dynamic regulation of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine in mouse ES cells and during differentiation. Nature 473:398–402

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Stroud H, Feng S, Morey Kinney S et al (2011) 5-Hydroxymethylcytosine is associated with enhancers and gene bodies in human embryonic stem cells. Genome Biol 12:R54

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Shahal T, Green O, Hananel U et al (2016) Simple and cost-effective fluorescent labeling of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine. Methods Appl Fluoresc 4:044003

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Gilat N, Tabachnik T, Shwartz A et al (2017) Single-molecule quantification of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine for diagnosis of blood and colon cancers. Clin Epigenetics 9:70

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Li W, Liu M (2011) Distribution of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine in different human tissues. J Nucleic Acids 2011:870726

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Chen Z, Shi X, Guo L et al (2015) Decreased 5-hydroxymethylcytosine levels correlate with cancer progression and poor survival: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Oncotarget 8:1944–1952

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Kroeze LI, Aslanyan MG, Van Rooij A et al (2014) Characterization of acute myeloid leukemia based on levels of global hydroxymethylation. Blood 124:1110–1118

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Liu C, Liu L, Chen X et al (2013) Decrease of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine is associated with progression of hepatocellular carcinoma through downregulation of TET1. PLoS One 8:e62828

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Yang Q, Wu K, Ji M et al (2013) Decreased 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5-hmC) is an independent poor prognostic factor in gastric cancer patients. J Biomed Nanotechnol 9:1607–1616

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Margalit S, Avraham S, Shahal T et al (2020) 5-Hydroxymethylcytosine as a clinical biomarker: fluorescence-based assay for high-throughput epigenetic quantification in human tissues. Int J Cancer 146:115–122

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Abbotts R, Wilson DM (2017) Coordination of DNA single strand break repair. Free Radic Biol Med 107:228–244

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Zirkin S, Fishman S, Sharim H et al (2014) Lighting up individual DNA damage sites by in vitro repair synthesis. J Am Chem Soc 136:7771–7776

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Gavande NS, Vandervere-Carozza PS, Hinshaw HD et al (2016) DNA repair targeted therapy: The past or future of cancer treatment? Pharmacol Ther 160:65–83

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Shahal T, Koren O, Shefer G et al (2018) Hypersensitive quantification of global 5-hydroxymethylcytosine by chemoenzymatic tagging. Anal Chim Acta 1038:87–96

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Sharim H, Grunwald A, Gabrieli T et al (2019) Long-read single-molecule maps of the functional methylome. Genome Res:1–38

    Google Scholar 

  21. Michaeli Y, Shahal T, Torchinsky D et al (2013) Optical detection of epigenetic marks: sensitive quantification and direct imaging of individual hydroxymethylcytosine bases. Chem Commun (Camb) 49:8599–8601

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. Nifker G, Levy-Sakin M, Berkov-Zrihen Y et al (2015) One-pot chemoenzymatic cascade for labeling of the epigenetic marker 5-Hydroxymethylcytosine. Chembiochem 16:1857–1860

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. Jain N, Shahal T, Gabrieli T et al (2019) Global modulation in DNA epigenetics during pro-inflammatory macrophage activation. Epigenetics 14:1183–1193

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Gabrieli T, Sharim H, Nifker G et al (2018) Epigenetic optical mapping of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine in nanochannel arrays. ACS Nano 12:7148

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. Torchinsky D, Michaeli Y, Gassman NR et al (2019) Simultaneous detection of multiple DNA damage types by multi-colour fluorescent labelling. Chem Commun 55:11414–11417

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge financial support from the BeyondSeq Consortium (EC program 634890), the European Research Council Proof of Concept grant by the EU-Horizon2020 program (grant no. 767931), the European Research Council Consolidator grant (grant No. 817811), the NIH R21 grant (R21ES028015-011), and the Joint Israeli German R&D Nanotechnology (grant no. 61976).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Yael Michaeli or Yuval Ebenstein .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2022 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature

About this protocol

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this protocol

Michaeli, Y. et al. (2022). Simple Quantification of Epigenetic DNA Modifications and DNA Damage on Multi-Well Slides. In: Yuan, BF. (eds) DNA Modification Detection Methods . Springer Protocols Handbooks. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-1229-3_4

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-1229-3_4

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Humana, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-0716-1228-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-0716-1229-3

  • eBook Packages: Springer Protocols

Publish with us

Policies and ethics