Sequence-level mechanisms of human epigenome evolution.

ABSTRACT: DNA methylation and chromatin states play key roles in development and disease. However, the extent of recent evolutionary divergence in the human epigenome and the influential factors that have shaped it are poorly understood. To determine the links between genome sequence and human epigenome evolution, we examined the divergence of DNA methylation and chromatin states following segmental duplication events in the human lineage. Chromatin and DNA methylation states were found to have been generally well conserved following a duplication event, with the evolution of the epigenome largely uncoupled from the total number of genetic changes in the surrounding DNA sequence. However, the epigenome at tissue-specific, distal regulatory regions was observed to be unusually prone to diverge follow

SUBMITTER: Prendergast JG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4122940 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature