@article {463, title = {DNA methylation in peripheral tissues and left-handedness}, journal = {Scientific Reports}, volume = {12}, year = {2022}, pages = {5606}, abstract = {

Handedness has low heritability and epigenetic mechanisms have been proposed as an etiological mechanism. To examine this hypothesis, we performed an epigenome-wide association study of left-handedness. In a meta-analysis of 3914 adults of whole-blood DNA methylation, we observed that CpG sites located in proximity of handedness-associated genetic variants were more strongly associated with left-handedness than other CpG sites (P = 0.04), but did not identify any differentially methylated positions. In longitudinal analyses of DNA methylation in peripheral blood and buccal cells from children (N = 1737), we observed moderately stable associations across age (correlation range [0.355-0.578]), but inconsistent across tissues (correlation range [- 0.384 to 0.318]). We conclude that DNA methylation in peripheral tissues captures little of the variance in handedness. Future investigations should consider other more targeted sources of tissue, such as the brain.

}, doi = {10.1038/s41598-022-08998-0}, author = {Odintsova, Veronika V and Suderman, Matthew and Hagenbeek, Fiona A and Caramaschi, Doretta and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Pool, Ren{\'e} and BIOS Consortium and Dolan, Conor V and Ligthart, Lannie and van Beijsterveldt, Catharina E M and Willemsen, Gonneke and de Geus, Eco J C and Beck, Jeffrey J and Ehli, Erik A and Cuellar-Partida, Gabriel and Evans, David M and Medland, Sarah E and Relton, Caroline L and Boomsma, Dorret I and van Dongen, Jenny} } @article {439, title = {DNA methylation signatures of aggression and closely related constructs: A meta-analysis of epigenome-wide studies across the lifespan}, journal = {Molecular Psychiatry}, volume = {26}, year = {2021}, pages = {2148{\textendash}2162}, abstract = {

DNA methylation profiles of aggressive behavior may capture lifetime cumulative effects of genetic, stochastic, and environmental influences associated with aggression. Here, we report the first large meta-analysis of epigenome-wide association studies (EWAS) of aggressive behavior (N = 15,324 participants). In peripheral blood samples of 14,434 participants from 18 cohorts with mean ages ranging from 7 to 68 years, 13 methylation sites were significantly associated with aggression (alpha = 1.2 $\times$ 10-7; Bonferroni correction). In cord blood samples of 2425 children from five cohorts with aggression assessed at mean ages ranging from 4 to 7 years, 83\% of these sites showed the same direction of association with childhood aggression (r = 0.7

}, doi = {10.1038/s41380-020-00987-x}, author = {van Dongen, Jenny and Hagenbeek, Fiona A and Suderman, Matthew and Roetman, Peter J and Sugden, Karen and Chiocchetti, Andreas G and Ismail, Khadeeja and Mulder, Rosa H and Hafferty, Jonathan D and Adams, Mark J and Walker, Rosie M and Morris, Stewart W and Lahti, Jari and K{\"u}pers, Leanne K and Escaramis, Georgia and Alemany, Silvia and Jan Bonder, Marc and Meijer, Mandy and Ip, Hill F and Jansen, Rick and Baselmans, Bart M L and Parmar, Priyanka and Lowry, Estelle and Streit, Fabian and Sirignano, Lea and Send, Tabea S and Frank, Josef and Jylh{\"a}v{\"a}, Juulia and Wang, Yunzhang and Mishra, Pashupati Prasad and Colins, Olivier F and Corcoran, David L and Poulton, Richie and Mill, Jonathan and Hannon, Eilis and Arseneault, Louise and Korhonen, Tellervo and Vuoksimaa, Eero and Felix, Janine F and Bakermans-Kranenburg, Marian J and Campbell, Archie and Czamara, Darina and Binder, Elisabeth and Corpeleijn, Eva and Gonzalez, Juan R and Grazuleviciene, Regina and Gutzkow, Kristine B and Evandt, Jorunn and Vafeiadi, Marina and Klein, Marieke and van der Meer, Dennis and Ligthart, Lannie and BIOS Consortium and Kluft, Cornelis and Davies, Gareth E and Hakulinen, Christian and Keltikangas-J{\"a}rvinen, Liisa and Franke, Barbara and Freitag, Christine M and Konrad, Kerstin and Hervas, Amaia and Fern{\'a}ndez-Rivas, Aranzazu and Vetro, Agnes and Raitakari, Olli and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Vermeiren, Robert and Strandberg, Timo and R{\"a}ikk{\"o}nen, Katri and Snieder, Harold and Witt, Stephanie H and Deuschle, Michael and Pedersen, Nancy L and H{\"a}gg, Sara and Sunyer, Jordi and Franke, Lude and Kaprio, Jaakko and Ollikainen, Miina and Moffitt, Terrie E and Tiemeier, Henning and van IJzendoorn, Marinus H and Relton, Caroline and Vrijheid, Martine and Sebert, Sylvain and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Caspi, Avshalom and Evans, Kathryn L and McIntosh, Andrew M and Bartels, Meike and Boomsma, Dorret I} } @article {417, title = {DNA methylation signatures of breastfeeding in buccal cells collected in mid-childhood}, journal = {Nutrients}, volume = {11}, year = {2019}, pages = {2804}, abstract = {

Breastfeeding has long-term benefits for children that may be mediated via the epigenome. This pathway has been hypothesized, but the number of empirical studies in humans is small and mostly done by using peripheral blood as the DNA source. We performed an epigenome-wide association study (EWAS) in buccal cells collected around age nine (mean = 9.5) from 1006 twins recruited by the Netherlands Twin Register (NTR). An age-stratified analysis examined if effects attenuate with age (median split at 10 years; n10 = 489, mean age = 11.2). We performed replication analyses in two independent cohorts from the NTR (buccal cells) and the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) (peripheral blood), and we tested loci previously associated with breastfeeding in epigenetic studies. Genome-wide DNA methylation was assessed with the Illumina Infinium MethylationEPIC BeadChip (Illumina, San Diego, CA, USA) in the NTR and with the HumanMethylation450 Bead Chip in the ALSPAC. The duration of breastfeeding was dichotomized (\&$\#$39;never\&$\#$39; vs. \&$\#$39;ever\&$\#$39;). In the total sample, no robustly associated epigenome-wide significant CpGs were identified ($\alpha$ = 6.34 $\times$ 10-8). In the sub-group of children younger than 10 years, four significant CpGs were associated with breastfeeding after adjusting for child and maternal characteristics. In children older than 10 years, methylation differences at these CpGs were smaller and non-significant. The findings did not replicate in the NTR sample (n = 98; mean age = 7.5 years), and no nearby sites were associated with breastfeeding in the ALSPAC study (n = 938; mean age = 7.4). Of the CpG sites previously reported in the literature, three were associated with breastfeeding in children younger than 10 years, thus showing that these CpGs are associated with breastfeeding in buccal and blood cells. Our study is the first to show that breastfeeding is associated with epigenetic variation in buccal cells in children. Further studies are needed to investigate if methylation differences at these loci are caused by breastfeeding or by other unmeasured confounders, as well as what mechanism drives changes in associations with age.

}, keywords = {ALSPAC., breastfeeding, DNA methylation, EPIC, EWAS, NTR, twins}, doi = {10.3390/nu11112804}, author = {Odintsova, Veronika V and Hagenbeek, Fiona A and Suderman, Matthew and Caramaschi, Doretta and van Beijsterveldt, Catharina E M and Kallsen, Noah A and Ehli, Erik A and Davies, Gareth E and Sukhikh, Gennady T and Fanos, Vassilios and Relton, Caroline and Bartels, Meike and Boomsma, Dorret I and van Dongen, Jenny} }