Role of CpG deserts in the epigenetic transgenerational inheritance of differential DNA methylation regions

摘要

Background Previously a variety of environmental toxicants were found to promote the epigenetic transgenerational inheritance of disease through differential DNA methylation regions (DMRs), termed epimutations, present in sperm. The transgenerational epimutations in sperm and somatic cells identified in a number of previous studies were further investigated. Results The epimutations from six different environmental exposures were found to be predominantly exposure specific with negligible overlap. The current report describes a major genomic feature of all the unique epimutations identified (535) as a very low ( Conclusions Observations suggest a potential regulatory role for lower density CpG regions termed “CpG deserts”. The potential evolutionary origins of these regions is also discussed.