Epigenetic factors, including DNA methylation, play a crucial role in the development, behavior, and stress response of insects yet the analysis of DNA methylation patterns remains quite challenging. This chapter will introduce the different technologies for DNA methylation analysis and present a general methodology for the analysis of DNA methylation patterns using the commonly used technology of bisulfite sequencing. The chapter will give a short overview of the sequencing technology itself and will primarily focus on presenting the bioinformatic and statistical analysis methodology of bisulfite sequencing data to study DNA methylation patterns.
Keywords: Bioinformatics; Bisulfite sequencing; DNA methylation.