Differentially methylated region in bovine MIMT1 detected by small-scale whole-genome methylation sequencing.

We previously showed that deregulation of PEG3 domain genes is associated with intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) in cattle. Here, we carried out genome-wide DNA methylation analysis of foetal placenta in two IUGR and wild-type samples and identified a differentially methylated region (DMR) in intron 2 of MIMT1. Pyrosequencing on a larger sample size (n = 20) confirmed significantly lower (P < 0.001) MIMT1-DMR methylation in foetal and maternal placenta of IUGR than wild-type conceptuses. Our study demonstrates that small-scale whole-genome bisulphite sequencing can be used to identify epigenetic regulatory elements in a defined genome locus.