A capture methyl-seq protocol with improved efficiency and cost-effectiveness using pre-pooling and enzymatic conversion

ObjectiveThe opportunities for sequencing-based methylome analysis of clinical samples are increasing. To reduce its cost and the amount of genomic DNA required for library preparation, we aimed to establish a capture methyl-seq protocol, which adopts pre-pooling of multiple libraries before hybridization capture and TET2/APOBEC-mediated conversion of unmethylated cytosine to thymine.ResultsWe compared a publicly available dataset generated by the standard Agilent protocol of SureSelect XT Human Methyl-Seq Kit and our dataset obtained by our modified protocol, EMCap, that adopted sample pre-pooling and enzymatic conversion. We confirmed that the quality of DNA methylation data was comparable between the two datasets. As our protocol, EMCap, is more cost-effective and reduces the amount of input genomic DNA, it would serve as a better choice for clinical methylome sequencing.