Genetic Epidemiology, Translational Neurogenomics, Psychiatric Genetics and Statistical Genetics Laboratories investigate the pattern of disease in families, particularly identical and non-identical twins, to assess the relative importance of genes and environment in a variety of important health problems.
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PMID
19151718
TITLE
DNA methylation profiles in monozygotic and dizygotic twins.
ABSTRACT
Twin studies have provided the basis for genetic and epidemiological studies in human complex traits. As epigenetic factors can contribute to phenotypic outcomes, we conducted a DNA methylation analysis in white blood cells (WBC), buccal epithelial cells and gut biopsies of 114 monozygotic (MZ) twins as well as WBC and buccal epithelial cells of 80 dizygotic (DZ) twins using 12K CpG island microarrays. Here we provide the first annotation of epigenetic metastability of approximately 6,000 unique genomic regions in MZ twins. An intraclass correlation (ICC)-based comparison of matched MZ and DZ twins showed significantly higher epigenetic difference in buccal cells of DZ co-twins (P = 1.2 x 10(-294)). Although such higher epigenetic discordance in DZ twins can result from DNA sequence differences, our in silico SNP analyses and animal studies favor the hypothesis that it is due to epigenomic differences in the zygotes, suggesting that molecular mechanisms of heritability may not be limited to DNA sequence differences.
DATE PUBLISHED
2009 Feb
HISTORY
PUBSTATUS PUBSTATUSDATE
received 2008/04/18
accepted 2008/10/10
aheadofprint 2009/01/18
entrez 2009/01/20 09:00
pubmed 2009/01/20 09:00
medline 2009/02/14 09:00
AUTHORS
NAME COLLECTIVENAME LASTNAME FORENAME INITIALS AFFILIATION AFFILIATIONINFO
Kaminsky ZA Kaminsky Zachary A ZA Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario M5T 1R8, Canada.
Tang T Tang Thomas T
Wang SC Wang Sun-Chong SC
Ptak C Ptak Carolyn C
Oh GH Oh Gabriel H T GH
Wong AH Wong Albert H C AH
Feldcamp LA Feldcamp Laura A LA
Virtanen C Virtanen Carl C
Halfvarson J Halfvarson Jonas J
Tysk C Tysk Curt C
McRae AF McRae Allan F AF
Visscher PM Visscher Peter M PM
Montgomery GW Montgomery Grant W GW
Gottesman II Gottesman Irving I II
Martin NG Martin Nicholas G NG
Petronis A Petronis Art A
INVESTIGATORS
JOURNAL
VOLUME: 41
ISSUE: 2
TITLE: Nature genetics
ISOABBREVIATION: Nat. Genet.
YEAR: 2009
MONTH: Feb
DAY:
MEDLINEDATE:
SEASON:
CITEDMEDIUM: Internet
ISSN: 1546-1718
ISSNTYPE: Electronic
MEDLINE JOURNAL
MEDLINETA: Nat Genet
COUNTRY: United States
ISSNLINKING: 1061-4036
NLMUNIQUEID: 9216904
PUBLICATION TYPE
PUBLICATIONTYPE TEXT
Comparative Study
Journal Article
Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Twin Study
Validation Studies
COMMENTS AND CORRECTIONS
REFTYPE REFSOURCE REFPMID NOTE
CommentIn Clin Genet. 2010 Mar;77(3):228-30 20002451
GRANTS
GRANTID AGENCY COUNTRY
R01 MH074127-01 NIMH NIH HHS United States
GENERAL NOTE
KEYWORDS
MESH HEADINGS
DESCRIPTORNAME QUALIFIERNAME
Adolescent
Animals
Animals, Outbred Strains
Case-Control Studies
Child
Chromosome Mapping
CpG Islands
DNA Methylation physiology
Epithelial Cells metabolism
Female metabolism
Gene Expression Profiling metabolism
Humans metabolism
Leukocytes metabolism
Male metabolism
Mice metabolism
Mice, Inbred Strains metabolism
Mouth Mucosa metabolism
Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis metabolism
Promoter Regions, Genetic metabolism
Twins, Dizygotic genetics
Twins, Monozygotic genetics
SUPPLEMENTARY MESH
GENE SYMBOLS
CHEMICALS
OTHER ID's