Comprehensive evaluation of the Infinium human MethylationEPIC v2 BeadChip

Infinium Methylation BeadChips are widely used to profile DNA cytosine modifications in large cohort studies for reasons of cost-effectiveness, accurate quantification, and user-friendly data analysis in characterizing these canonical epigenetic marks. In this work, we conducted a comprehensive evaluation of the updated Infinium MethylationEPIC v2 BeadChip (EPICv2). Our evaluation revealed that EPICv2 offers significant improvements over its predecessors, including expanded enhancer coverage, applicability to diverse ancestry groups, support for low-input DNA down to one nanogram, coverage of existing epigenetic clocks, cell type deconvolution panels, and human trait associations, while maintaining accuracy and reproducibility. Using EPICv2, we were able to identify epigenome and sequence signatures in cell line models of DNMT and SETD2 loss and/or hypomorphism. Furthermore, we provided probe-wise evaluation and annotation to facilitate the use of new features on this array for studying the interplay between somatic mutations and epigenetic landscape in cancer genomics. In conclusion, EPICv2 provides researchers with a valuable tool for studying epigenetic modifications and their role in development and disease.