10.5061/DRYAD.5X69P8D07
Venney, Clare
0000-0002-8058-9489
University of Windsor
Love, Oliver
University of Windsor
Drown, Jane
Yellow Island Aquaculture (Canada)
Heath, Daniel
University of Windsor
DNA methylation profiles suggest intergenerational transfer of maternal effects
Dryad
dataset
2019
2019-12-02T00:00:00Z
2019-12-02T00:00:00Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msz244
2178347401 bytes
2
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
The view of maternal effects (non-genetic maternal environmental influence
on offspring phenotype) has changed from one of distracting complications
in evolutionary genetics to an important evolutionary mechanism for
improving offspring fitness. Recent studies have shown that maternal
effects act as an adaptive mechanism to prepare offspring for stressful
environments. Although research into the magnitude of maternal effects is
abundant, the molecular mechanisms of maternal influences on offspring
phenotypic variation are not fully understood. Despite recent work
identifying DNA methylation as a potential mechanism of non-genetic
inheritance, currently proposed links between DNA methylation and parental
effects are indirect and primarily involve genomic imprinting. We combined
a factorial breeding design and gene-targeted sequencing methods to assess
inheritance of methylation during early life stages at 14 genes involved
in growth, development, metabolism, stress response and immune function of
Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha). We found little evidence for
additive or non-additive genetic effects acting on methylation levels
during early development; however, we detected significant maternal
effects. Consistent with conventional maternal effect data, maternal
effects on methylation declined through development and were replaced with
non-additive effects when offspring began exogenous feeding. We mapped
methylation at individual CpG sites across the selected candidate genes to
test for variation in site-specific methylation profiles and found
significant maternal effects at selected CpG sites that also declined with
development stage. While intergenerational inheritance of methylated DNA
is controversial, we show that CpG-specific methylation may function as an
underlying molecular mechanism for maternal effects, with important
implications for offspring fitness.