학술논문
DNA methylation in peripheral tissues and left-handedness
Document Type
article
Author
Veronika V. Odintsova; Matthew Suderman; Fiona A. Hagenbeek; Doretta Caramaschi; Jouke-Jan Hottenga; René Pool; BIOS Consortium; Conor V. Dolan; Lannie Ligthart; Catharina E. M. van Beijsterveldt; Gonneke Willemsen; Eco J. C. de Geus; Jeffrey J. Beck; Erik A. Ehli; Gabriel Cuellar-Partida; David M. Evans; Sarah E. Medland; Caroline L. Relton; Dorret I. Boomsma; Jenny van Dongen
Source
Scientific Reports, Vol 12, Iss 1, Pp 1-16 (2022)
Subject
Language
English
ISSN
2045-2322
Abstract
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.