Fig. 2

DNA methylation and NuRD toolkit in metazoans. On the left is shown a phylogenetic tree of the 54 metazoan species for which we identified DNA methylation and NuRD genes. Branches of this phylogenetic tree are color-coded (brown for non-bilaterians, blue for deuterostomes, orange for ecdysozoans, and red for lophotrochozoans). Polytomies highlight uncertainties about the relationships between bilaterian and non-bilaterian groups and within lophotrochozoans. Major phylogenetic groups are shown by hexagons placed on the tree nodes defining these groups. Additional taxonomic information: Saccoglossus kowalevskii belongs to hemichordates, Strongylocentrotus purpuratus to echinoderms, Branchiostoma floridae to cephalochordates, Ciona intestinalis to urochordates, Hypsibius dujardini to tardigrades, Adineta vaga to rotifers, Schmidtea mediterranea and Schistosoma mansoni to platyhelminthes, and Lingula anatina to brachiopods. The number of members found for each gene family is indicated for each species. Dots indicate that we failed to identify any members. Chd1/2, Chd6/7/8/9, and Mbd4 gene families which do not encode NuRD members are also indicated. For each species, the type of methylation (from 1 to 4) inferred from CpG o/e clustering [48] is also shown (asterisks indicate data derived from a previous study [48]). Type 1 corresponds to ultra-low gene body methylation, type 2 to low gene body methylation, type 3 to gene body methylation, and type 4 to mosaic DNA methylation (see [48] for details). W = Writers, M = Modifiers, R = Readers. Sequences of the identified proteins, multiple alignments, and phylogenetic trees can be found in Additional file 5 and Additional file 6: Figure S4