Timothy E Van Baak, Cristian Coarfa, Pierre-Antoine Dugué, Giovanni Fiorito, Eleonora Laritsky, Maria S Baker, Noah J Kessler, Jianrong Dong, Jack D Duryea, Matt J Silver, Ayden Saffari, Andrew M Prentice, Sophie E Moore, Akram Ghantous, Michael N Routledge, Yun Yun Gong, Zdenko Herceg, Paolo Vineis, Gianluca Severi, John L Hopper, Melissa C Southey, Graham G Giles, Roger L Milne, Robert A Waterland
BACKGROUND: Monozygotic twins have long been studied to estimate heritability and explore epigenetic influences on phenotypic variation. The phenotypic and epigenetic similarities of monozygotic twins have been assumed to be largely due to their genetic identity. RESULTS: Here, by analyzing data from a genome-scale study of DNA methylation in monozygotic and dizygotic twins, we identified genomic regions at which the epigenetic similarity of monozygotic twins is substantially greater than can be explained by their genetic identity...
January 9, 2018: Genome Biology