Extended Data Fig. 6: The DNAm drift expands via crypt fission.

a, A representative picture of laser capture microdissection (LCM) of single intestinal crypts before (upper panel) and after (lower panel) cut. b, The DNAm profiles of the Dkk2 gene promoter in two independent intestinal regions of 11 neighboring crypts (region C – left panel, region D – right panel). The red arrows indicate neighboring crypts with very similar DNAm profiles. c, Correlation heatmap of the neighboring crypts as in (b). d, The DNAm profiles of the Dkk1 gene promoter in four independent intestinal regions of 16, 8, 11, and 11 neighboring crypts (the same crypts/regions as for the Dkk2 gene). The red arrows indicate neighboring crypts with very similar DNAm profiles. e, Correlation heatmap of the neighboring crypts as in (d). f, Bar chart showing the Pearson correlation of the DNAm profiles of the Dkk1 gene promoter in the randomly picked (n = 45) and/or neighboring (n = 42) crypts. p-value was calculated by Mann-Whitney test, 2-tails. Error bars in the figure bar charts represent the SD. g, Bar chart showing the Pearson correlation of the DNAm profiles of the Dkk1 gene promoter in the crypts with high (n = 20) and low (n = 20) correlation of the DNAm profiles of the Dkk2 gene promoter. p-value was calculated by Welch’s t-test, 2-tails. Error bars in the figure bar charts represent the SD. h, Correlation heatmap of the crypts in clusters as in the Fig. 4j. i, Correlation heatmap of the scattered crypts as in the Fig. 4k.