Comparative Methylome Analyses Identify Epigenetic Regulatory Loci of Human Brain Evolution.

ABSTRACT: How do epigenetic modifications change across species and how do these modifications affect evolution? These are fundamental questions at the forefront of our evolutionary epigenomic understanding. Our previous work investigated human and chimpanzee brain methylomes, but it was limited by the lack of outgroup data which is critical for comparative (epi)genomic studies. Here, we compared whole genome DNA methylation maps from brains of humans, chimpanzees and also rhesus macaques (outgroup) to elucidate DNA methylation changes during human brain evolution. Moreover, we validated that our approach is highly robust by further examining 38 human-specific DMRs using targeted deep genomic and bisulfite sequencing in an independent panel of 37 individuals from five primate species. Our unbiased g

SUBMITTER: Mendizabal I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5062329 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature