Allele-Specific Methylome and Transcriptome Analysis Reveals Widespread Imprinting in the Human Placenta.

ABSTRACT: DNA methylation is globally reprogrammed after fertilization, and as a result, the parental genomes have similar DNA-methylation profiles after implantation except at the germline differentially methylated regions (gDMRs). We and others have previously shown that human blastocysts might contain thousands of transient maternally methylated gDMRs (transient mDMRs), whose maternal methylation is lost in embryonic tissues after implantation. In this study, we performed genome-wide allelic DNA methylation analyses of purified trophoblast cells from human placentas and, surprisingly, found that more than one-quarter of the transient-in-embryo mDMRs maintained their maternally biased DNA methylation. RNA-sequencing-based allelic expression analyses revealed that some of the placenta-specific mDMR

SUBMITTER: Hamada H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5097938 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature