Inferring DNA methylation in non-skeletal tissues of ancient specimens.

ABSTRACT: Genome-wide premortem DNA methylation patterns can be computationally reconstructed from high-coverage DNA sequences of ancient samples. Because DNA methylation is more conserved across species than across tissues, and ancient DNA is typically extracted from bones and teeth, previous works utilizing ancient DNA methylation maps focused on studying evolutionary changes in the skeletal system. Here we suggest that DNA methylation patterns in one tissue may, under certain conditions, be informative on DNA methylation patterns in other tissues of the same individual. Using the fact that tissue-specific DNA methylation builds up during embryonic development, we identified the conditions that allow for such cross-tissue inference and devised an algorithm that carries it out. We trained the algor

SUBMITTER: Mathov Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11726462 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature