Epigenetics Laboratory for Human Health and Longevity, Institute of Transplantation Diagnostics and Cell Therapeutics, Medical Faculty, Heinrich-Heine University Duesseldorf, Moorenstr. 5, 40225 Duesseldorf, Germany.
Genes (Basel). 2024 Sep 12;15(9):1198. doi: 10.3390/genes15091198.
Long-standing, continuous blurring and controversies in the field of phylogenetic interspecies relations, associated with insufficient explanations for dynamics and variability of speeds of evolution in mammals, hint at a crucial missing link. It has been suggested that transgenerational epigenetic inheritance and the concealed mechanisms behind play a distinct role in mammalian evolution. Here, a comprehensive sequence alignment approach in hominid species, i.e., , , , , , and , comprising conserved CpG islands of housekeeping genes, uncover evidence for a distinct variability of CpG dinucleotides. Applying solely these evolutionary consistent and inconsistent CpG sites in a classic phylogenetic analysis, calibrated by the divergence time point of the common chimpanzee () and the bonobo or pygmy chimpanzee (), a "phylo-epigenetic" tree has been generated, which precisely recapitulates branch points and branch lengths, i.e., divergence events and relations, as they have been broadly suggested in the current literature, based on comprehensive molecular phylogenomics and fossil records of many decades. It is suggested here that CpG dinucleotide changes at CpG islands are of superior importance for evolutionary developments. These changes are successfully inherited through the germ line, determining emerging methylation profiles, and they are a central component of transgenerational epigenetic inheritance. It is hidden in the DNA, what will happen on it later.
在种系发生种间关系领域，长期以来一直存在模糊和争议，这与哺乳动物进化速度的动态和可变性的解释不足有关，这暗示着存在一个关键的缺失环节。有人认为，跨代表观遗传遗传和背后隐藏的机制在哺乳动物进化中发挥了独特的作用。在这里，对人科物种进行了全面的序列比对方法，即、、、、、、和，包括管家基因的保守 CpG 岛，揭示了 CpG 二核苷酸的明显变异性的证据。仅应用这些进化一致和不一致的 CpG 位点在经典的系统发育分析中，通过共同黑猩猩（）和倭黑猩猩或侏儒黑猩猩（）的分化时间点进行校准，生成了一个“系统发生-表观遗传”树，它精确地再现了分支点和分支长度，即，根据几十年的综合分子系统发生学和化石记录，广泛提出的分化事件和关系。这里提出的是，CpG 二核苷酸在 CpG 岛上的变化对进化发展具有重要意义。这些变化可以通过生殖系成功遗传，决定新兴的甲基化谱，并且它们是跨代表观遗传遗传的核心组成部分。它隐藏在 DNA 中，以后会在上面发生什么。
