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DNA Methylation, Epigenetics, and Evolution in Vertebrates: Facts and Challenges

DNA methylation is a key epigenetic modification in the vertebrate genomes known to be involved in biological processes such as regulation of gene expression, DNA structure and control of transposable elements. Despite increasing knowledge about DNA methylation, we still lack a complete understandin...

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Autor principal: Varriale, Annalisa
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Hindawi Publishing Corporation 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3914449/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24551476
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/475981
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author Varriale, Annalisa
author_facet Varriale, Annalisa
author_sort Varriale, Annalisa
collection PubMed
description DNA methylation is a key epigenetic modification in the vertebrate genomes known to be involved in biological processes such as regulation of gene expression, DNA structure and control of transposable elements. Despite increasing knowledge about DNA methylation, we still lack a complete understanding of its specific functions and correlation with environment and gene expression in diverse organisms. To understand how global DNA methylation levels changed under environmental influence during vertebrate evolution, we analyzed its distribution pattern along the whole genome in mammals, reptiles and fishes showing that it is correlated with temperature, independently on phylogenetic inheritance. Other studies in mammals and plants have evidenced that environmental stimuli can promote epigenetic changes that, in turn, might generate localized changes in DNA sequence resulting in phenotypic effects. All these observations suggest that environment can affect the epigenome of vertebrates by generating hugely different methylation patterns that could, possibly, reflect in phenotypic differences. We are at the first steps towards the understanding of mechanisms that underlie the role of environment in molding the entire genome over evolutionary times. The next challenge will be to map similarities and differences of DNA methylation in vertebrates and to associate them with environmental adaptation and evolution.
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spelling pubmed-39144492014-02-18 DNA Methylation, Epigenetics, and Evolution in Vertebrates: Facts and Challenges Varriale, Annalisa Int J Evol Biol Review Article DNA methylation is a key epigenetic modification in the vertebrate genomes known to be involved in biological processes such as regulation of gene expression, DNA structure and control of transposable elements. Despite increasing knowledge about DNA methylation, we still lack a complete understanding of its specific functions and correlation with environment and gene expression in diverse organisms. To understand how global DNA methylation levels changed under environmental influence during vertebrate evolution, we analyzed its distribution pattern along the whole genome in mammals, reptiles and fishes showing that it is correlated with temperature, independently on phylogenetic inheritance. Other studies in mammals and plants have evidenced that environmental stimuli can promote epigenetic changes that, in turn, might generate localized changes in DNA sequence resulting in phenotypic effects. All these observations suggest that environment can affect the epigenome of vertebrates by generating hugely different methylation patterns that could, possibly, reflect in phenotypic differences. We are at the first steps towards the understanding of mechanisms that underlie the role of environment in molding the entire genome over evolutionary times. The next challenge will be to map similarities and differences of DNA methylation in vertebrates and to associate them with environmental adaptation and evolution. Hindawi Publishing Corporation 2014 2014-01-16 /pmc/articles/PMC3914449/ /pubmed/24551476 http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/475981 Text en Copyright © 2014 Annalisa Varriale. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Review Article
Varriale, Annalisa
DNA Methylation, Epigenetics, and Evolution in Vertebrates: Facts and Challenges
title DNA Methylation, Epigenetics, and Evolution in Vertebrates: Facts and Challenges
title_full DNA Methylation, Epigenetics, and Evolution in Vertebrates: Facts and Challenges
title_fullStr DNA Methylation, Epigenetics, and Evolution in Vertebrates: Facts and Challenges
title_full_unstemmed DNA Methylation, Epigenetics, and Evolution in Vertebrates: Facts and Challenges
title_short DNA Methylation, Epigenetics, and Evolution in Vertebrates: Facts and Challenges
title_sort dna methylation, epigenetics, and evolution in vertebrates: facts and challenges
topic Review Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3914449/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24551476
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/475981
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