Does the Methylated DNA regions in you equals mean of your mom and dad? Yes, No – come on let’s know about it!

Overall opinion is that monozygotic twins are genetically identical and have no differences in any mechanisms, but studies have demonstrated that a monozygotic twin shows differences at the level of DNA methylation. DNA methylation an epigenetic mechanism plays a major role in the developmental regulation of gene expression. DNA methylation is known to contribute to interindividual phenotypic variations which lead to onset of few diseases. These variations are inherited across generations. Across the majority of the genome, DNA methylation is assumed to be complementary on both alleles, although there are several instances where it can be allele-specific.
Inbred mice are ideally suited to study the inheritance of an epigenetic mark like DNA methylation, because the sameness of genetic backgrounds within a strain allows for reproducible mating conditions between two inbred mouse strains. According to the above statements, when two DNA methylated inbred mice are mated, the F1 hybrid should contain methylated DNA regions from both maternal and paternal. The proportions of methylated regions in the F1 hybrid lead to an interesting concept. Let’s find the secret story...!

Refrences:-
Schilling, E., C. El Chartouni, et al. (2009). "Allele-specific DNA methylation in mouse strains is mainly determined by cis-acting sequences." Genome Research 19(11): 2028-2035.

Saranya Srinivasan
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