Environmental Induced Epigenetic Transgenerational Inheritance of Pathology: Systems Epigenetics in Disease Etiology and Generational Toxicology

Several epigenome-wide association studies (EWAS) have been shown to identify epigenetic alterations (i.e., epimutations) associated with diseases. The sperm epimutations potentially involved in the transgenerational inheritance of specific pathologies have been identified. Transgenerational sperm epimutations associated with kidney, prostate, puberty, testis, obesity, and multiple pathologies have been identified for a variety of environmental toxicants including dioxin, plastics, pesticides, glyphosate, methoxychlor, atrazine, and jet fuel. The transgenerational sperm epimutations for exposure and disease-specific epimutations have been identified in these EWAS studies. The current study used the information from these previous toxicant-induced epigenetic transgenerational inheritance EWAS rat studies and adds a comparable control group, rats that have not been exposed to any particular toxicant. Two additional control groups were collected and are presented here.多项全表观基因组关联研究（Epigenome-Wide Association Studies, EWAS）已被证实可识别与疾病相关的表观遗传改变（即表观突变，epimutations）。目前已成功鉴定出可能参与特定病理跨代遗传的精子表观突变。针对二噁英、塑料类污染物、各类杀虫剂、草甘膦、甲氧滴滴涕、阿特拉津及喷气燃料等多种环境毒物，研究人员已鉴定出与肾脏病变、前列腺疾病、青春期异常、睾丸病变、肥胖及多种病理相关的跨代精子表观突变。此类与暴露相关及疾病特异性的跨代精子表观突变，已在上述EWAS研究中得到鉴定。本研究整合了此前毒物诱导表观遗传跨代遗传的大鼠EWAS研究数据，并增设了一组未暴露于任何特定毒物的大鼠作为匹配对照组；此外，本研究还额外收集了两组对照样本并在此一并呈现。