Epigenetics: It's Getting Old. Past Meets Future in Paleoepigenetics

David Gokhman; Eran Meshorer; Liran Carmel

doi:10.1016/j.tree.2016.01.010

Epigenetics: It's Getting Old. Past Meets Future in Paleoepigenetics

Trends Ecol Evol. 2016 Apr;31(4):290-300. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2016.01.010. Epub 2016 Feb 15.

Authors

David Gokhman¹, Eran Meshorer², Liran Carmel³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Genetics, The Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Edmond J. Safra Campus, Givat Ram, Jerusalem 91904, Israel.
² Department of Genetics, The Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Edmond J. Safra Campus, Givat Ram, Jerusalem 91904, Israel; The Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91904, Israel. Electronic address: meshorer@huji.ac.il.
³ Department of Genetics, The Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Edmond J. Safra Campus, Givat Ram, Jerusalem 91904, Israel. Electronic address: liran.carmel@huji.ac.il.

PMID: 26898827
DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2016.01.010

Abstract

Recent years have witnessed the rise of ancient DNA (aDNA) technology, allowing comparative genomics to be carried out at unprecedented time resolution. While it is relatively straightforward to use aDNA to identify recent genomic changes, it is much less clear how to utilize it to study changes in epigenetic regulation. Here we review recent works demonstrating that highly degraded aDNA still contains sufficient information to allow reconstruction of epigenetic signals, including DNA methylation and nucleosome positioning maps. We discuss challenges arising from the tissue specificity of epigenetics, and show how some of them might in fact turn into advantages. Finally, we introduce a method to infer methylation states in tissues that do not tend to be preserved over time.

Keywords: DNA methylation; Denisovan; Neanderthal; ancient DNA; epigenetics; nucleosome.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Review

MeSH terms

Animals
DNA / genetics
DNA Methylation
Epigenesis, Genetic*
Hominidae / genetics*

Substances

DNA