Epigenetic databases and computational methodologies in the analysis of epigenetic datasets

Abstract

Epigenetics research is one of the emerging research fields in biomedical research. During the last few decades, a collection of useful tools (both to design the experiments and to analyze the results) and databases are developed. This review chapter discusses basic tools which are used to detect CpG islands and the Transcription Start Site (TSS) and discusses experimental design and analysis, mainly of DNA-methylation experiments. During the last years, an enormous amount of experimental data had been generated and published. Therefore, we describe some epigenetic databases, with a special focus on DNA methylation and cancer. Some general cancer databases are discussed as well, as they might reveal the link between the results from epigenetic experiments and their biological influence on the development or progression of cancer. Next, some novel computational approaches in epigenetics are discussed, for instance used to predict the methylation state of a promoter in certain circumstances. To show a possible data analysis strategy of an epigenetic dataset in cancer research, there is a showcase where a DNA-methylation dataset, generated on colorectal cancer samples, is analyzed. This demonstrates how a DNA-methylation dataset might look like and the different steps in a possible analysis strategy and how to interpret the results.