Developmental Origins of Transgenerational Sperm DNA Methylation Epimutations Following Ancestral Vinclozolin Exposure

Previously the agricultural fungicide vinclozolin was found to promote the transgenerational inheritance of sperm differential DNA methylation regions (DMRs) termed epimutations that help mediate this epigenetic inheritance. The current study was designed to investigate the developmental origins of the transgenerational DMRs during gametogenesis. Male control and vinclozolin lineage F3 generation rats were used as a source of embryonic day 16 (E16) prospermatogonia, postnatal day 10 (P10) spermatogonia, and adult pachytene spermatocytes, round spermatids, caput epididymal sperm, and caudal sperm. The DMRs between the control versus vinclozolin lineage samples were determined for each developmental stage. The top 100 statistically significant DMRs for each stage were compared and the developmental origins of the caudal epididymal sperm DMRs were assessed.