Presentation
SE Asian Parent/offspring trios offer insight into sex-specific patterns of DNA methylation at the leptin core promoter
The 84th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists
(2015)
Abstract
Anthropological Geneticists characterize the manner by which environmental factors affect gene expression, phenotypic plasticity and human adaptation. Dietary nutrients are ongoing determinants of gene expression, moderating the metabolic programming of a nutritional phenotype –an accumulation of interactive processes between inherited genotype, environmental factors and nutrition. Programming this phenotype begins in utero, resulting in individually unique patterns of metabolism, nutrient utilization, and gene expression. Epigenetic mechanisms, such as DNA methylation, also affect gene expression without altering DNA sequences, thus implying transient mediation influencing developmental plasticity by more rapid, flexible and reversible means than natural selection. Human DNA methylation studies suggest dietary effects on methylation patterns of the leptin (LEP) locus. Leptin is involved in regulation of energy homeostasis, adipogenesis and reproduction.
We previously examined DNA methylation patterns at the leptin core promoter in maternal/duos of four populations from three continents. Here we examine parent/offspring trios. Analyzing 14 SE Asian trios, with a total of 17 offspring (total n=45), we calculated correlations across seven LEP promoter CpG methylation sites among both parents and offspring. These seven sites exhibited varying methylation densities. One of the seven sites produced significant correlations between parents (r2 0.571) and between offspring (r2-.678) but no significant correlations occurred between fathers and sons or mothers and sons across the seven sites. Significant inverse correlations between mothers and daughters at sites 2-7 and fathers and daughters at sites 3 and 6 (all p<0.005, r2 = -0.555 to – 0.740) were seen, suggesting that methylation densities are lower in daughters.
Keywords
- Anthropolgical Geneticists,
- Epigenetic mechanisms,
- DNA methylation
Disciplines
Publication Date
March, 2015
Location
St. Louis, MO
Citation Information
2015 Mosher MJ, Schanfield MS. SE Asian Parent/offspring trios offer insight into sex-specific patterns of DNA methylation at the leptin core promoter. AJPA 156(S60):230.