Development of techniques for DNA-methylation analysis

DNA methylation is an important mode of epigenetic modification and has great significance in biochemistry, medicine and genomics. The development of techniques for DNA-methylation analysis is fundamental and pivotal for epigenome research. In around 30 years of diligent study, direct and indirect approaches were developed. Direct approaches mainly focus on global methylation analysis, while indirect approaches rely on specific recognition of DNA-methylation lad. In this review, we introduce typical methods, especially those based on developing the method of methylation-loci recognition from the most used, bisulfite conversion, biological recognition, and the newly proposed chemical cleavage. Furthermore, we assess the perspectives on the research methodology of DNA-methylation analysis. To date, there have been few summaries of the research methodology of DNA-methylation analysis. The review is envisioned to be helpful for the researchers to design novel methods of DNA-methylation analysis. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.