Presentation given at the Friday Harbor Laboratories on August 13th, 2014

1. Does DNA methylation facilitate
phenotypic plasticity in marine
invertebrates?
Steven Roberts
School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences
robertslab.info
@sr320

2. Shameless plug
onsnetwork.org/eimd
@EIMD_fhl

3. Shameless plug
onsnetwork.org/eimd
@EIMD_fhl

4. Does DNA methylation facilitate
phenotypic plasticity in marine
invertebrates?

5. Open Science
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6. commercially important traits
Lab Background

7. commercially important traits
modified from
Lab Background

8. modified from

9. modified from

10. modified from

11. Today
modified from
1
2
3

13. Histone Modification
Epigenetics
short RNAs
DNA Methylation

14. Photo credit: Flickr, Creative Commons, he-boden
Epigenetics

15. Epigenetics

17. m
m
DNA Methylation

18. Function?

23. Non-
Vertebrates?
landscape and function is very different than
what is observed in vertebrates

24. Non-
Vertebrates?
landscape and function is very different than
what is observed in vertebrates

25. Non-
Vertebrates?
landscape and function is very different than
what is observed in vertebrates

26. Absent in
several
model
organisms

27. Function?Oysters?

30. mosaic
associated with gene bodies

33. Roberts and Gavery 2012
in silico analysis

34. Roberts and Gavery 2012
in silico analysis

35. Roberts and Gavery 2012
in silico analysis

36. Two Lineages
-
Sperm +
Larvae
(72h & 120h)
Claire Olson
Whole Genome BS-Seq

37. Claire Olson
Differentially Methylated Loci predominant in
Transposable Elements

38. Claire Olson
github.com/sr320/olson-dev

39. Summary
• Sparsely (~16 %) methylated genome
• Gene body methylation
• Function specific
•TEs are not hypermethylated across
genome
• Preliminary evidence indicates DMRs
are predominant in TEs

43. Role?

44. In species that experience a diverse range of
environmental conditions, processes have evolved to
increase the number of potential phenotypes in a
population in order to improve the chances for an
individual’s survival.

45. Roberts and Gavery 2012
in silico analysis

46. Stochastic Variation
housekeeping
response to
change

47. Mackenzie Gavery

48. housekeeping
response to
change

49. Targeted
Regulation

50. Mackenzie Gavery

51. Mackenzie Gavery

55. Transposable Elements providing increased diversity?

56. modified from
Beginning to
test these
Hypotheses

57. Very new data
Environment and gene expression
stochastic or targeted?

58. Very new data
Environmental impact (Estrogens)

59. Very new data
Ocean Acidification
Selection
Environmental Impact
Katie Lotterhos

60. Very new data
Heritability
Plasticity
Local Adaptation
Genetics
versus
Epigenetics
Common Garden Experiment

61. Acknowledgements
Mackenzie Gavery
Claire Ellis
Sam White
Bill Howe
Dan Halperin
EPA
STAR
DNA methylation
robertslab.infoslides, data & more @