Project description:Background: DNA methylation has long been known to play an essential role in the epigenetic regulation of gene expression and other cellular functions, and has been in some cases linked to genetic variation. While its presence near the transcription start site of a gene has been associated with reduced expression, the variation in methylation levels across individuals, its environmental or genetic causes, and its association with gene expression remain poorly understood. Results: We report the joint analysis of sequence variants, gene expression and DNA methylation in primary fibroblast samples derived from a set of 62 unrelated individuals. Approximately 2% of the most variable CpG sites are mappable in cis to sequence variation, usually within 5kb. Via eQTL analysis with microarray data combined with mapping of allelic expression regions, we obtained a set of 2770 regions mappable in cis to sequence variation. In 9.5% of these expressed regions, an associated SNP was also a methylation QTL. Methylation and gene expression are often correlated without direct discernible involvement of sequence variation, but not always in the expected direction (negative for promoter CpGs, positive for gene body CpGs). Population-level correlation between methylation and expression is strongest in a subset of developmentally significant genes, including all four HOX clusters. The presence and sign of this correlation are best predicted using specific histone marks or DNase I hypersensitivity rather than position of the CpG site with respect to the gene, showing that other epigenetic markers are necessary to interpret downstream effects of individual methylation variants. Conclusion: Our results indicate a wide variety of relationships between gene expression, DNA methylation and sequence variation in untransformed adult human fibroblasts, with considerable involvement of chromatin features. We note particularly high levels of variation and correlation in DNA methylation and gene expression at key developmental loci, with little discernible involvement of sequence variation.

Project description:Background: DNA methylation has long been known to play an essential role in the epigenetic regulation of gene expression and other cellular functions, and has been in some cases linked to genetic variation. While its presence near the transcription start site of a gene has been associated with reduced expression, the variation in methylation levels across individuals, its environmental or genetic causes, and its association with gene expression remain poorly understood. Results: We report the joint analysis of sequence variants, gene expression and DNA methylation in primary fibroblast samples derived from a set of 62 unrelated individuals. Approximately 2% of the most variable CpG sites are mappable in cis to sequence variation, usually within 5kb. Via eQTL analysis with microarray data combined with mapping of allelic expression regions, we obtained a set of 2770 regions mappable in cis to sequence variation. In 9.5% of these expressed regions, an associated SNP was also a methylation QTL. Methylation and gene expression are often correlated without direct discernible involvement of sequence variation, but not always in the expected direction (negative for promoter CpGs, positive for gene body CpGs). Population-level correlation between methylation and expression is strongest in a subset of developmentally significant genes, including all four HOX clusters. The presence and sign of this correlation are best predicted using specific histone marks or DNase I hypersensitivity rather than position of the CpG site with respect to the gene, showing that other epigenetic markers are necessary to interpret downstream effects of individual methylation variants. Conclusion: Our results indicate a wide variety of relationships between gene expression, DNA methylation and sequence variation in untransformed adult human fibroblasts, with considerable involvement of chromatin features. We note particularly high levels of variation and correlation in DNA methylation and gene expression at key developmental loci, with little discernible involvement of sequence variation. Ref-8 Gene Expression Data for human primary fibroblast lines

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The relationship between DNA methylation, genetic and expression inter-individual variation in untransformed human fibroblasts [methylation profiling]

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