Design and exploration of integrating bioinformatic analysis into comprehensive and exploratory epigenetic experiments.

As the most thoroughly studied epigenetic modification, DNA methylation-induced silencing of suppressor genes is closely related with the development of cancers. Bioinformatic analysis is an important research tool in the fields of life sciences, medicine, and so on. To introduce the application of bioinformatic analysis in cancer epigenetic research to students and to change the current situation that students usually passively perform experiments during the experimental teaching of genetics, we established a comprehensive and exploratory epigenetic experiment which was integrated with bioinformatic analysis. The implement of this experiment followed the principles of centering on students and cultivating scientific research capabilities. Students selected the genes that were potentially silenced by high DNA methylation in lung adenocarcinoma through bioinformatic analysis and literature review under the guidance of teachers and formulated experimental scheme by their own. They then conducted real-time PCR and methylation-specific PCR to explore whether DNA methylation caused the expression silencing of genes of interest and to identify the DNA methyltransferase responsible for the methylation of genes of interest. To comprehensively assess the capability of students, we designed diversified evaluation methods which intensify the assessment of experiment process. This experiment has the characteristics of interdisciplinarity, comprehensiveness, and inquiry, which can help to cultivate the scientific thinking and practical ability of students.