Ultra-mild bisulfite outperforms existing methods for 5-methylcytosine detection with low input DNA.

Dai, Qing; Baldwin, Tanner; Lyu, Ruitu; Daniels, Bryan; Ye, Chang; Cao, Chen; Zhu, Chenyou; Fan, Diwen et al. · Nat Commun · 2025

basic_science · Level V

Where this comes from

Abstract

We present Ultra-Mild Bisulfite Sequencing (UMBS-seq), a method for 5-methylcytosine (5mC) detection that minimizes DNA degradation and background noise. UMBS-seq outperforms conventional bisulfite and enzymatic methyl-sequencing (EM-seq) methods in library yield, complexity, and conversion efficiency when applied to low-input DNA samples. In particular, its effectiveness with low-input cell-free DNA (cfDNA) and hybridization-based target capture highlights its potential for clinical applications, including 5mC biomarker detection and early disease diagnosis.

Medical subject headings