Gunasekara Chathura J, Maduranga Uditha, Zhang Taylor, Wells Jonathan N, Baker Maria S, Laritsky Eleonora, Li Yumei, Coarfa Cristian, Zhu Yi, Waterland Robert A
USDA/ARS Children's Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, 77030, United States.
Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14850, United States.
Nucleic Acids Res. 2025 Jul 19;53(14). doi: 10.1093/nar/gkaf624.
Metastable epialleles (MEs) are genomic loci at which epigenetic marks are established stochastically during early embryonic development and maintained during subsequent differentiation and throughout life, leading to stable epigenetic and phenotypic variation among genetically identical individuals. Although MEs were first described in mice over 20 years ago, the extent of epigenetic metastability in the mouse genome remains unknown. We present the first unbiased genome-wide screen for MEs in mice. Using deep whole-genome bisulfite sequencing across tissues derived from the three embryonic germ layers in isogenic C57BL/6J mice, we identified only 29 MEs, precisely localizing them and documenting their rarity. Consistent with recent findings, we found no effects of maternal dietary methyl donor supplementation on ME methylation in the offspring, challenging previous assertions that MEs generally exhibit developmental plasticity. Most but not all MEs are associated with intracisternal A-particle (IAP) elements, tending to localize to the 5' end of the IAP. Additionally, we discovered autosomal regions at which systemic interindividual variation in DNA methylation is associated with sex, providing insights into sex-associated epigenetic development that apparently precedes sexual differentiation. Our findings indicate that expression of transcription factors, including CCCTC-binding factor (CTCF) and specific KRAB zinc finger proteins during early embryonic development, plays a key role in orchestrating stochastic establishment and/or maintenance of DNA methylation at metastable transposable elements. Overall, these findings advance our understanding of the genomic determinants of epigenetic metastability and suggest that interindividual epigenetic variation at MEs is unlikely to be a major determinant of phenotypic variation among isogenic mice.
亚稳态表观等位基因(MEs)是基因组位点,在早期胚胎发育过程中,表观遗传标记随机建立,并在随后的分化过程及整个生命过程中得以维持,从而导致基因相同的个体间出现稳定的表观遗传和表型变异。尽管20多年前就在小鼠中首次描述了MEs,但小鼠基因组中表观遗传亚稳定性的程度仍不清楚。我们首次对小鼠中的MEs进行了无偏全基因组筛选。通过对同基因C57BL/6J小鼠三个胚胎胚层来源的组织进行深度全基因组亚硫酸氢盐测序,我们仅鉴定出29个MEs,精确确定了它们的位置并记录了它们的稀有性。与最近的研究结果一致,我们发现母体饮食中甲基供体补充对后代ME甲基化没有影响,这对之前认为MEs通常表现出发育可塑性的观点提出了挑战。大多数但并非所有的MEs都与脑内A颗粒(IAP)元件相关,倾向于定位于IAP的5'端。此外,我们发现了常染色体区域,其中DNA甲基化的系统个体间差异与性别相关,这为明显先于性别分化的性别相关表观遗传发育提供了见解。我们的研究结果表明,包括CCCTC结合因子(CTCF)和特定KRAB锌指蛋白在内的转录因子在早期胚胎发育过程中的表达,在协调亚稳态转座元件处DNA甲基化的随机建立和/或维持中起关键作用。总体而言,这些发现推进了我们对表观遗传亚稳定性基因组决定因素的理解,并表明MEs处个体间的表观遗传变异不太可能是同基因小鼠间表型变异的主要决定因素。