ArticleGenome biology2015
Independent genomewide screens identify the tumor suppressor VTRNA2-1 as a human epiallele responsive to periconceptional environment.
Article in Genome biology, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT01811641 (Epigenesis in Humans), which is not on this map. Cited by 106 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Epigenesis in Humans: Can Maternal Methyl-donor-deficient Diets Induce Epigenetic Alterations in Their Offspring?
Who cites it
106 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 203 citations in OpenAlex.
- Regulation of nc886 (vtRNA2-1) RNAs is associated with cardiometabolic risk factors and diseases.Clinical epigenetics · 2025Pooled it
- New insights into the (epi)genetics of twinning.Human reproduction (Oxford, England) · 2024Pooled it
- Analysis of DNA methylation at birth and in childhood reveals changes associated with season of birth and latitude.Clinical epigenetics · 2023Pooled it
- A novel nutritional supplement to reduce plasma homocysteine in nonpregnant women: A randomised controlled trial in The Gambia.PLoS medicine · 2019Trial
- Influence of intergenerationalFASEB journal : official publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology · 2017Trial
- Hypomethylation of VTRNA2-1 promoter predicts adverse outcomes in peripheral artery disease.Clinical epigenetics · 2026Article
- Genetic impacts on within-pair DNA methylation variance in monozygotic twins capture gene-environment interactions and cell-type effects.Genome biology · 2026Article
- Genome-wide association and DNA methylation analyses of SSRI treatment response in major depressive disorder.BMC psychiatry · 2025Article
- Transposable elements as instructors of the immune system.Nature reviews. Immunology · 2025Review
- Review
- Mouse metastable epialleles are extremely rare.Nucleic acids research · 2025Article
- Allelic expression patterns of imprinted and non-imprinted genes in cancer cell lines from multiple histologies.Clinical epigenetics · 2025Article
- Father's adolescent body silhouette is associated with offspring asthma, lung function and BMI through DNA methylation.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Human genomic regions of systemic interindividual epigenetic variation are implicated in neurodevelopmental and metabolic disorders.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
- Review
- Commentary on "Epigenome-wide analysis across the development span of pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia: backtracking to birth".Molecular cancer · 2025Article
- Non-coding 886 (Epigenetics · 2024Review
- Systemic interindividual DNA methylation variants in cattle share major hallmarks with those in humans.Genome biology · 2024Article
- Epigenetics of the non-coding RNA nc886 across blood, adipose tissue and skeletal muscle in offspring exposed to diabetes in pregnancy.Clinical epigenetics · 2024Article
- Crosstalk between vault RNAs and innate immunity.Molecular biology reports · 2024Review
46 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
18 authors at 10 institutions in 5 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundInterindividual epigenetic variation that occurs systemically must be established prior to gastrulation in the very early embryo and, because it is systemic, can be assessed in easily biopsiable tissues. We employ two independent genome-wide approaches to search for such variants.
resultsFirst, we screen for metastable epialleles by performing genomewide bisulfite sequencing in peripheral blood lymphocyte (PBL) and hair follicle DNA from two Caucasian adults. Second, we conduct a genomewide screen for genomic regions at which PBL DNA methylation is affected by season of conception in rural Gambia. Remarkably, both approaches identify the genomically imprinted VTRNA2-1 as a top environmentally responsive epiallele. We demonstrate systemic and stochastic interindividual variation in DNA methylation at the VTRNA2-1 differentially methylated region in healthy Caucasian and Asian adults and show, in rural Gambians, that periconceptional environment affects offspring VTRNA2-1 epigenotype, which is stable over at least 10 years. This unbiased screen also identifies over 100 additional candidate metastable epialleles, and shows that these are associated with cis genomic features including transposable elements.
conclusionsThe non-coding VTRNA2-1 transcript (also called nc886) is a putative tumor suppressor and modulator of innate immunity. Thus, these data indicating environmentally induced loss of imprinting at VTRNA2-1 constitute a plausible causal pathway linking early embryonic environment, epigenetic alteration, and human disease. More broadly, the list of candidate metastable epialleles provides a resource for future studies of epigenetic variation and human disease.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.