Insights into the multifactorial causation of obesity by integrated genetic and epigenetic analysis

Non-model organisms are generally more difficult and/or time consuming to work with than model organisms. In addition, epigenetic analysis of model organisms is facilitated by well-established protocols, and commercially-available reagents and kits that may not be available for, or previously tested on, non-model organisms. Given the evolutionary conservation and widespread nature of many epigenetic mechanisms, a powerful method to analyze epigenetic phenomena from non-model organisms would be to use transgenic model organisms containing an epigenetic region of interest from the non-model. Interestingly, while transgenic Drosophila and mice have provided significant insight into the molecular mechanisms and evolutionary conservation of the epigenetic processes that target epigenetic control regions in other model organisms, this method has so far been under-exploited for non-model organism epigenetic analysis. This paper details several experiments that have examined the epigenetic processes of genomic imprinting and paramutation, by transferring an epigenetic control region from one model organism to another. These cross-species experiments demonstrate that valuable insight into both the molecular mechanisms and evolutionary conservation of epigenetic processes may be obtained via transgenic experiments, which can then be used to guide further investigations and experiments in the species of interest.

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Synthesis of Protocols with Temporal Constraints: Epigenetic Analysis

Optimization of Trustworthy Biomolecular Quantitative Analysis Using Cyber-Physical Microfluidic Platforms ◽

10.1201/9781003053187-3 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 59-80

Author(s):

Mohamed Ibrahim ◽

Krishnendu Chakrabarty

Keyword(s):

Temporal Constraints ◽

Epigenetic Analysis

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Honeybee (Apis mellifera) Maternal Effect Causes Alternation of DNA Methylation Regulating Queen Development

Sociobiology ◽

10.13102/sociobiology.v68i1.5935 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 68 (1) ◽

pp. 5935

Author(s):

Xu Jiang He ◽

Hao Wei ◽

Wu Jun Jiang ◽

Yi Bo Liu ◽

Xiao Bo Wu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Dna Methylation ◽

Apis Mellifera ◽

Signaling Pathways ◽

Maternal Effect ◽

Caste Differentiation ◽

Hippo Signaling ◽

Thorax Length ◽

Queen Cell ◽

Epigenetic Analysis ◽

Worker Caste

Queen-worker caste dimorphism is a typical trait for honeybees (Apis mellifera). We previously showed a maternal effect on caste differentiation and queen development, where queens emerged from queen-cell eggs (QE) had higher quality than queens developed from worker cell eggs (WE). In this study, newly-emerged queens were reared from QE, WE, and 2-day worker larvae (2L). The thorax size and DNA methylation levels of queens were measured. We found that queens emerging from QE had significantly larger thorax length and width than WE and 2L. Epigenetic analysis showed that QE/2L comparison had the most different methylated genes (DMGs, 612) followed by WE/2L (473), and QE/WE (371). Interestingly, a great number of DMGs (42) were in genes belonging to mTOR, MAPK, Wnt, Notch, Hedgehog, FoxO, and Hippo signaling pathways that are involved in regulating caste differentiation, reproduction and longevity. This study proved that honeybee maternal effect causes epigenetic alteration regulating caste differentiation and queen development.

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