Disease variants alter transcription factor levels and methylation of their binding sites
Bonder, Marc Jan; Luijk, René; Zhernakova, Daria V; Moed, Matthijs; Deelen, Patrick; Vermaat, Martijn; van Iterson, Maarten; van Dijk, Freerk; van Galen, Michiel; Bot, Jan; Slieker, Roderick C; Jhamai, P Mila; Verbiest, Michael; Suchiman, H Eka D; Verkerk, Marijn; van der Breggen, Ruud; van Rooij, Jeroen; Lakenberg, Nico; Arindrarto, Wibowo; Kielbasa, Szymon M; Jonkers, Iris; van 't Hof, Peter; Nooren, Irene; Beekman, Marian; Deelen, Joris; van Heemst, Diana; Zhernakova, Alexandra; Tigchelaar, Ettje F; Swertz, Morris A; Hofman, Albert; Uitterlinden, André G; Pool, René; van Dongen, Jenny; Hottenga, Jouke J; Stehouwer, Coen D A; van der Kallen, Carla J H; Schalkwijk, Casper G; van den Berg, Leonard H; van Zwet, Erik W; Mei, Hailiang; Li, Yang; Lemire, Mathieu; Hudson, Thomas J; Slagboom, P Eline; Wijmenga, Cisca; Veldink, Jan H; van Greevenbroek, Marleen M J; van Duijn, Cornelia M; Boomsma, Dorret I; Isaacs, Aaron; BIOS Consortium
(2017) Nature Genetics, volume 49, issue 1, pp. 131–138
(Article)
Abstract
Most disease-associated genetic variants are noncoding, making it challenging to design experiments to understand their functional consequences. Identification of expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) has been a powerful approach to infer the downstream effects of disease-associated variants, but most of these variants remain unexplained. The analysis of DNA methylation, a
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key component of the epigenome, offers highly complementary data on the regulatory potential of genomic regions. Here we show that disease-associated variants have widespread effects on DNA methylation in trans that likely reflect differential occupancy of trans binding sites by cis-regulated transcription factors. Using multiple omics data sets from 3,841 Dutch individuals, we identified 1,907 established trait-associated SNPs that affect the methylation levels of 10,141 different CpG sites in trans (false discovery rate (FDR) < 0.05). These included SNPs that affect both the expression of a nearby transcription factor (such as NFKB1, CTCF and NKX2-3) and methylation of its respective binding site across the genome. Trans methylation QTLs effectively expose the downstream effects of disease-associated variants.
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Keywords: Journal Article
ISSN: 1061-4036
Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
(Publisher version, Peer reviewed)