Epimutations in Developmental Genes Underlie the Onset of Domestication in Farmed European Sea Bass.

ABSTRACT: Domestication of wild animals induces a set of phenotypic characteristics collectively known as the domestication syndrome. However, how this syndrome emerges is still not clear. Recently, the neural crest cell deficit hypothesis proposed that it is generated by a mildly disrupted neural crest cell developmental program, but clear support is lacking due to the difficulties of distinguishing pure domestication effects from preexisting genetic differences between farmed and wild mammals and birds. Here, we use a farmed fish as model to investigate the role of persistent changes in DNA methylation (epimutations) in the process of domestication. We show that early domesticates of sea bass, with no genetic differences with wild counterparts, contain epimutations in tissues with different embryo

SUBMITTER: Anastasiadi D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6759067 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature