Epigenome-Wide Association Study for Transgenerational Disease Epimutation Sperm Biomarkers following Ancestral Exposure to Jet Fuel Hydrocarbons

Jet fuel hydrocarbons is the generic name for aviation fuels used in gas-turbine engine powered aircrafts. Due to the widespread use of jet fuel hydrocarbons, this compound has been recognized as the single largest chemical exposure for military personnel. Previous animal studies have demonstrated the ability of jet fuel (JP-8) exposure to promote the epigenetic transgenerational inheritance of disease susceptibility in subsequent generations. The diseases observed include late puberty, kidney, obesity and multiple disease pathologies. The current study was designed to identify potential sperm DNA methylation biomarkers for specific transgenerational diseases. Observations identify few disease specific differential DNA methylation regions (DMRs) called epimutations in the transgenerational F3 generation great-grand-offspring rats ancestrally exposed to jet fuel. The potential epigenetic DMRs were identified for late puberty, kidney, obesity, and multiple diseases, and found to be predominantly disease specific. These disease specific DMRs have associated genes previously shown to be linked with each of these specific diseases. Therefore, the germline (i.e. sperm) has environmentally induced ancestrally derived epimutations that have the potential to transgenerationally transmit disease susceptibilities to subsequent generations. Epigenetic biomarkers for specific diseases could be developed as medical diagnostics to facilitate clinical management of disease and allow preventative medicine therapeutics.