This invention relates to the identification of modified cytosine residues, such as 5-methylcytosine (5mC), 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) and 5-formylcytosine (5fC) to be distinguished from cytosine (C) in a sample nucleotide sequence. Methods may comprise oxidizing or reducing a first portion of polynucleotides which comprise the sample nucleotide sequence; treating the oxidized or reduced first portion and a second portion of polynucleotides with bisulfite; sequencing the polynucleotides in the first and second portions of the population following steps ii) and iii) to produce first and second nucleotide sequences, respectively and; identifying the residue in the first and second nucleotide sequences which corresponds to a cytosine residue in the sample nucleotide sequence. These methods may be useful, for example in the analysis of genomic DNA and/or of RNA.