Figure 7

Comparative DNA methylation of LTB4R visualized in the UCSC browser. Human hypomethylated s-DMRs (yellow) are shown in the promoter CpGi (CpG: 99) of LTB4R (major isoform LTB4R-001 outlined in red). Methylation scale is in reads per millions (RPM) for each species from MeDIP-seq (human, light blue; chimpanzee, orange; rhesus macaque, olive green). As well as reduced promoter methylation, larger gene-body methylation, which is related to higher expression [69], was also seen in human compared with the other species over the sole exon (approximately 1.29-fold stronger peak MAC P-value over gene body CpGi (CpG:76)). In this complex locus the promoter of the major isoform of LTB4R (highlighted with a red rectangle) also co-locates with the gene body of the low-specificity receptor LTB4R2 and CIDEB. LTB4R has strong expression in all blood subtypes, particularly the myeloid lineage, including monocytes (Additional file 6).