Ancestral perinatal obesogen exposure results in a transgenerational thrifty phenotype in mice
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ABSTRACT: Ancestral environmental exposures to non-mutagenic agents can exert effects in unexposed descendants, adding a layer of complexity to long-standing attempts to clarify the relationships between genotypic and phenotypic variations. Transgenerational inheritance of environmental exposures has significant implications for understanding disease etiology. The environmental obesogen hypothesis proposes that exposure to obesogenic chemicals can lead to increased adiposity, in vivo. Here we show that exposure of F0 mice to the obesogen tributyltin (TBT) throughout pregnancy and lactation predisposes unexposed F4 male descendants to obesity when dietary fat is increased. Analyses of body fat, plasma hormone levels, and visceral white adipose tissue DNA methylome and transcriptome collectively indicate that the TBT-dependent F4 obesity is consistent with a leptin resistant, "thrifty phenotype". We found that ancestral TBT exposure induced global changes in DNA methylation together with altered expression of metabolism-relevant genes when the animals were exposed to dietary challenges. Analysis of chromatin accessibility in sperm revealed significant differences between DMSO and TBT groups when guided by DNA sequence composition, a proxy for higher order chromatin organization. Taken together, these data establish an independent connection between ancestral TBT treatment and altered chromatin accessibility that may reflect changes in higher order chromatin organization transmissible through meiosis and mitosis.
ORGANISM(S): Mus musculus
PROVIDER: GSE105051 | GEO | 2017/11/10
SECONDARY ACCESSION(S): PRJNA414476
REPOSITORIES: GEO
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