DNA methylation landscapes from pig’s limbic structures underline regulatory mechanisms relevant for brain plasticity

Epigenetic dynamics are essential for reconciling stress-induced responses in neuro-endocrine routes between the limbic brain and adrenal gland. CpG methylation associates with the initiation and end of regulatory mechanisms underlying responses critical for survival, and learning. Using Reduced Representation Bisulfite Sequencing, we identified methylation changes of functional relevance for mediating tissue-specific responses in the hippocampus, amygdala, hypothalamus, and adrenal gland in pigs. We identified 4186 differentially methylated CpGs across all tissues, remarkably, enriched for promoters of transcription factors (TFs) of the homeo domain and zinc finger classes. We also detected 5190 differentially methylated regions (DMRs, 748 Mb), with about half unique to a single pairwise. Two structures, the hypothalamus and the hippocampus, displayed 860 unique brain-DMRs, with many linked to regulation of chromatin, nervous development, neurogenesis, and cell-to-cell communication. TF binding motifs for TFAP2A and TFAP2C are enriched amount DMRs on promoters of other TFs, suggesting their role as master regulators, especially for pathways essential in long-term brain plasticity, memory, and stress responses. Our results reveal sets of TF that, together with CpG methylation, may serve as regulatory switches to modulate limbic brain plasticity and brain-specific molecular genetics in pigs.