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Fig. 5 | Genome Biology

Fig. 5

From: Methylome evolution in plants

Fig. 5

a Simplification of the reconstruction of a methylation site frequency spectrum (mSFS). In this example, we consider a sample size of five accessions (Acc.), and eight sites among which two (in gray) are monomorphic and thus discarded for the mSFS. For each cytosine, each accession might exhibit a methylated (M) or an unmethylated (U) state. For the mSFS, counts are taken of the number of accessions that are unmethylated for that cytosine. These counts define discrete epiallelic classes (number of unmethylated alleles). b The observed frequencies of each epiallelic class is determined, in this case, from genic CG sites of 92 A. thaliana worldwide natural accessions (red bars), along with the maximum likelihood estimate based on the theoretical result of Charlesworth and Jain [123] (pink bars). The theoretical model (see Box 1) provides an accurate fit to the observed genic CG methylation diversity patterns, suggesting that CG epimutations are a major factor in shaping methylome diversity in natural populations of A. thaliana over evolutionary timescales

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