Identical twins carry a persistent epigenetic signature of early genome programming
| Title | Identical twins carry a persistent epigenetic signature of early genome programming |
| Publication Type | Journal Article |
| Year of Publication | 2021 |
| Authors | van Dongen, J, Gordon, SD, McRae, AF, Odintsova, VV, Mbarek, H, Breeze, CE, Sugden, K, Lundgren, S, Castillo-Fernandez, JE, Hannon, E, Moffitt, TE, Hagenbeek, FA, van Beijsterveldt, CEM, Hottenga, JJan, Tsai, P-C, Consortium, BIOS, Consortium, Gof DNAMet, Min, JL, Hemani, G, Ehli, EA, Paul, F, Stern, CD, Heijmans, BT, P Slagboom, E, Daxinger, L, van der Maarel, SM, de Geus, EJC, Willemsen, G, Montgomery, GW, Reversade, B, Ollikainen, M, Kaprio, J, Spector, TD, Bell, JT, Mill, J, Caspi, A, Martin, NG, Boomsma, DI |
| Journal | Nature Communications |
| Volume | 12 |
| Pagination | 5618 |
| Abstract | Monozygotic (MZ) twins and higher-order multiples arise when a zygote splits during pre-implantation stages of development. The mechanisms underpinning this event have remained a mystery. Because MZ twinning rarely runs in families, the leading hypothesis is that it occurs at random. Here, we show that MZ twinning is strongly associated with a stable DNA methylation signature in adult somatic tissues. This signature spans regions near telomeres and centromeres, Polycomb-repressed regions and heterochromatin, genes involved in cell-adhesion, WNT signaling, cell fate, and putative human metastable epialleles. Our study also demonstrates a never-anticipated corollary: because identical twins keep a lifelong molecular signature, we can retrospectively diagnose if a person was conceived as monozygotic twin. |
| DOI | 10.1038/s41467-021-25583-7 |
