Epigenetic drift underlies epigenetic clock signals, but displays distinct responses to lifespan interventions, development, and cellular dedifferentiation.

ABSTRACT: Changes in DNA methylation with age are observed across the tree of life. The stereotypical nature of these changes can be modeled to produce epigenetic clocks capable of predicting chronological age with unprecedented accuracy. Despite the predictive ability of epigenetic clocks and their utility as biomarkers in clinical applications, the underlying processes that produce clock signals are not fully resolved, which limits their interpretability. Here, we develop a computational approach to spatially resolve the within read variability or "disorder" in DNA methylation patterns and test if age-associated changes in DNA methylation disorder underlie signals comprising epigenetic clocks. We find that epigenetic clock loci are enriched in regions that both accumulate and lose disorder with ag

SUBMITTER: Bertucci-Richter EM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10866415 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature