Common diseases, such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer, exhibit multifactorial etiologies with clear genetic and environmental contributions. Tremendous progress in understanding the genetic basis of common disease has been made during the past decade through the sequencing of the human and other genomes, analysis of common variation in human populations, and the development of high throughput technologies for genotyping and gene expression analyses. Over the past several years, Human Genome Wide Association Studies (GWAS) have robustly revealed hundreds of novel loci for common diseases, although in most cases these explain a small fraction of the estimated genetic component. Efforts to extend association approaches, by searching for less common or rare variants using array technologies and high throughput sequencing, are underway. It has also become clear that epigenetics, of which DNA methylation is one of the more stable and heritable manifestations, is an important, although largely uncharacterized, contributor to common diseases. We now propose to extend GWAS in a novel direction by examining, on a global level, the relationship between the methylation state of the genome, DNA variation, gene expression, and physiologic traits associated with common disease. The proposal evolved from the complementary ongoing studies in the laboratories of Drs. Lusis, Pellegrini, and Jacobsen, which coincide with the development of highly efficient sequencing technologies that have made large scale bisulfite sequencing studies feasible. Specifically, the laboratory of Dr. Lusis has developed a """"""""systems genetics"""""""" resource consisting of 100 inbred strains of mice, termed the Hybrid Mouse Diversity Panel (HMDP), that has sufficient power to achieve high resolution mapping (1-2 Mb) for loci contributing to transcriptomic, proteomic, metabolomic, and physiologic traits. The laboratories of Drs. Pellegrini and Jacobsen have the capacity to contribute the latest generation sequencing technology and expertise for the purpose of establishing the genome-wide DNA methylation status for 100 mouse strains in the HMDP at single base resolution. This study will represent the first systematic effort to associate epigenetic patterns with metabolic and common disease phenotypes on a genome-wide scale. If funded, we believe this project will significantly alter the paradigm of GWAS studies, by demonstrating the impact of epigenetics on heritable phenotypic traits.

Public Health Relevance

The propose of this study is to extend GWAS in a novel direction by examining, on a global level, the relationship between the methylation state of individual cytosines in the genome, gene expression, and physiologic traits associated with common disease. This study will represent the first systematic effort to associate epigenetic patterns with metabolic and common disease phenotypes on a genome-wide scale. If funded, this project will significantly alter the paradigm of GWAS studies, by demonstrating for the first time the impact of epigenetics on heritable phenotypic traits.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01GM095656-02
Application #
8293102
Study Section
Genomics, Computational Biology and Technology Study Section (GCAT)
Program Officer
Krasnewich, Donna M
Project Start
2011-07-01
Project End
2015-03-31
Budget Start
2012-04-01
Budget End
2013-03-31
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
2012
Total Cost
$451,891
Indirect Cost
$158,455
Name
University of California Los Angeles
Department
Biochemistry
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
092530369
City
Los Angeles
State
CA
Country
United States
Zip Code
90095
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Guo, Weilong; Zhu, Ping; Pellegrini, Matteo et al. (2018) CGmapTools improves the precision of heterozygous SNV calls and supports allele-specific methylation detection and visualization in bisulfite-sequencing data. Bioinformatics 34:381-387
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Chen, Pao-Yang; Ganguly, Amit; Rubbi, Liudmilla et al. (2013) Intrauterine calorie restriction affects placental DNA methylation and gene expression. Physiol Genomics 45:565-76
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