Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

EPIGENETICS

Metastable epialleles are stable in their instability

Metastable epialleles refer to loci with variable methylation states among individuals without underlying genetic differences. Although these loci have generally been assumed to be vulnerable to environmental influence, a new study reports their remarkable metastable epigenetic robustness toward a range of physiological, chemical and dietary disruptions in mammals.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: VM-IAPs acquire DNA methylation in a probabilistic fashion during early development, before germ-lineage formation, thus leading to interindividual differences in genetically identical mice, with high intraindividual methylation concordance across tissues.

References

  1. Rakyan, V. K., Blewitt, M. E., Druker, R., Preis, J. I. & Whitelaw, E. Trends Genet. 18, 348–351 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Wolff, G. L., Kodell, R. L., Moore, S. R. & Cooney, C. A. FASEB J. 12, 949–957 (1998).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Waterland, R. A. & Jirtle, R. L. Mol. Cell. Biol. 23, 5293–5300 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Dolinoy, D. C., Weidman, J. R., Waterland, R. A. & Jirtle, R. L. Environ. Health Perspect. 114, 567–572 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Dolinoy, D. C., Huang, D. & Jirtle, R. L. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 104, 13056–13061 (2007).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Neier, K., Cheatham, D., Bedrosian, L. D. & Dolinoy, D. C. J. Dev. Orig. Health Dis. 10, 176–187 (2019).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Bertozzi, T. M. & Ferguson-Smith, A. C. Semin. Cell Dev. Biol. 97, 93–105 (2020).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Kazachenka, A. et al. Cell 175, 1717 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Bertozzi, T.M. et al. Nat. Genet. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-021-00898-9 (2021).

  10. Bell, C. G. et al. Genome Biol. 20, 249 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Bruno, M., Mahgoub, M. & Macfarlan, T. S. Annu. Rev. Genet. 53, 393–416 (2019).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Karahan, G. et al. Development 148, dev.199492 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Bertozzi, T. M., Elmer, J. L., Macfarlan, T. S. & Ferguson-Smith, A. C. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 117, 31290–31300 (2020).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Bertozzi, T. M., Takahashi, N., Hanin, G., Kazachenka, A. & Ferguson-Smith, A. C. eLife 10, e65233 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Costello, K.R. et al. preprint at bioRxiv https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.06.01.446659 (2021).

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Deborah Bourc’his.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Bourc’his, D. Metastable epialleles are stable in their instability. Nat Genet 53, 1121–1123 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-021-00907-x

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-021-00907-x

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing