Prenatal stress-induced programming of genome-wide promoter DNA methylation in 5-Htt deficient mice. Mus musculus

The serotonin transporter (5-HTT) gene-linked polymorphic region has been suggested to play a modulatory role in mediating the effects of early-life stress on psychopathology rendering carriers of the low-expression short (s)-allele more vulnerable to environmental adversity in later life. Here we analyzed the effects of prenatal stress (PS), 5-Htt genotype, and an interactin of both on DNA methylation in the hippocampi of female C57BL/6 mice. Here, we applied Methylated DNA ImmunoPrecipitation (MeDIP) in a maternal restraint stress paradigm to perform a global promoter DNA methylation screen: Hippocampal DNA of wild type and 5-Htt +/- mice in stressed and control environments were analyzed to define genotype- (G) and environment-dependent (E) as well as GxE-interactive effects on promoter DNA methylation in the brain region, where marked effects were expected. Overall design: MeDIP-based promoter DNA methylation screen