Methylation of DNA at the fifth position in cytosine (5-mC) is a stable epigenetic modification and plays an important role in many biological processes, including gene silencing, suppression of transposable elements, genomic imprinting and X chromosome inactivation. Detection and quantification of methylation are critical to understand gene expression and other processes subjected to epigenetic regulation.
Whole genome bisulfite sequencing (WGBS) is used to detect methylated cytosines by treating the DNA with sodium bisulfite before sequencing. WGBS has become the gold standard for studying genome-wide methylation at single base resolution.