Parallel shift of DNA methylation and gene expression toward the mean in mouse spleen with aging.

ABSTRACT: Age-associated DNA-methylation drift (AMD) manifests itself in two ways in mammals: global decrease (hypomethylation) and local increase of DNA methylation (hypermethylation). To comprehend the principle behind this bidirectional AMD, we studied methylation states of spatially clustered CpG dinucleotides in mouse splenic DNA using reduced-representation-bisulfite-sequencing (RRBS). The mean methylation levels of whole CpGs declined with age. Promoter-resident CpGs, generally weakly methylated (<5%) in young mice, became hypermethylated in old mice, whereas CpGs in gene-body and intergenic regions, initially moderately (~33%) and extensively (>80%) methylated, respectively, were hypomethylated in the old. Chromosome-wise analysis of methylation revealed that inter-individual heterogeneities

SUBMITTER: Jeong S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10415566 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature