Van Baak, TE, Coarfa, C, Dugué, P-A et al. (21 more authors) (2018) Epigenetic supersimilarity of monozygotic twin pairs. Genome Biology, 19. 2. ISSN 1474-760X
Abstract
Background: Monozygotic twins have long been studied to estimate heritability and explore epigenetic influences on phenotypic variation. The phenotypic and epigenetic similarities of monozygotic twins have been assumed to be largely due to their genetic identity. Results: Here, by analyzing data from a genome-scale study of DNA methylation in monozygotic and dizygotic twins, we identified genomic regions at which the epigenetic similarity of monozygotic twins is substantially greater than can be explained by their genetic identity. This “epigenetic supersimilarity” apparently results from locus-specific establishment of epigenotype prior to embryo cleavage during twinning. Epigenetically supersimilar loci exhibit systemic interindividual epigenetic variation and plasticity to periconceptional environment and are enriched in sub-telomeric regions. In case-control studies nested in a prospective cohort, blood DNA methylation at these loci years before diagnosis is associated with risk of developing several types of cancer. Conclusions: These results establish a link between early embryonic epigenetic development and adult disease. More broadly, epigenetic supersimilarity is a previously unrecognized phenomenon that may contribute to the phenotypic similarity of monozygotic twins.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2018 The Author(s). Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. |
Keywords: | Epigenetics; Twins; Monozygotic; Dizygotic; Cancer; Metastable epialleles; Developmental programming; DOHaD |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Medicine and Health (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Grant No. OPP1066947 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 07 Dec 2017 12:03 |
Last Modified: | 23 Jun 2023 22:40 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | BioMed Central |
Identification Number: | 10.1186/s13059-017-1374-0 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:124821 |
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