ArticleNature communications2016
Genetic and environmental influences interact with age and sex in shaping the human methylome.
Article in Nature communications, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 225 papers, 16 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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
225 citing papers in PubMed, 16 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Epigenome-wide association study meta-analysis of wellbeing.Clinical epigenetics · 2026Pooled it
- Paediatric DNA methylation profile scores: a systematic review and open-source atlas.EBioMedicine · 2026Pooled it
- Epigenome-wide association study of circulating interleukin-6 connects DNA methylation to immunometabolic and inflammatory health.Communications biology · 2026Pooled it
- DNA methylation of genes involved in lipid metabolism drives adiponectin levels and metabolic disease.Diabetologia · 2026Pooled it
- Schizophrenia is associated with altered DNA methylation variance.Molecular psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- New insights into the (epi)genetics of twinning.Human reproduction (Oxford, England) · 2024Pooled it
- Epigenome-wide meta-analysis of prenatal maternal stressful life events and newborn DNA methylation.Molecular psychiatry · 2023Pooled it
- DNA methylation sites in early adulthood characterised by pubertal timing and development: a twin study.Clinical epigenetics · 2023Pooled it
- Meta-analysis of epigenome-wide associations between DNA methylation at birth and childhood cognitive skills.Molecular psychiatry · 2022Pooled it
- Prenatal medication exposure and epigenetic outcomes: a systematic literature review and recommendations for prenatal pharmacoepigenetic studies.Epigenetics · 2022Pooled it
- Meta-analyses identify DNA methylation associated with kidney function and damage.Nature communications · 2021Pooled it
- Epigenome-wide meta-analysis of blood DNA methylation and its association with subcortical volumes: findings from the ENIGMA Epigenetics Working Group.Molecular psychiatry · 2021Pooled it
- Meta-analysis of genome-wide DNA methylation and integrative omics of age in human skeletal muscle.Journal of cachexia, sarcopenia and muscle · 2021Pooled it
- DNA methylation signatures of aggression and closely related constructs: A meta-analysis of epigenome-wide studies across the lifespan.Molecular psychiatry · 2021Pooled it
- Epigenome-wide Association Study of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Symptoms in Adults.Biological psychiatry · 2019Pooled it
- Epigenetic changes in healthy human skeletal muscle following exercise- a systematic review.Epigenetics · 2019Pooled it
- The methylome in females with adolescent Conduct Disorder: Neural pathomechanisms and environmental risk factors.PloS one · 2022Trial
- Genetic Regulation of DNA Methylation and Its Mediating Role in Blood Pressure: A Genome-Wide Twin Study.MedComm · 2026Article
- Genetically Predicted Blood DNA Methylation Reveals Putative Regulatory Signals Associated with ALS Risk.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- An epigenetic clock for chronological age estimation in East Asian populations.NAR genomics and bioinformatics · 2026Article
165 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.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The methylome is subject to genetic and environmental effects. Their impact may depend on sex and age, resulting in sex- and age-related physiological variation and disease susceptibility. Here we estimate the total heritability of DNA methylation levels in whole blood and estimate the variance explained by common single nucleotide polymorphisms at 411,169 sites in 2,603 individuals from twin families, to establish a catalogue of between-individual variation in DNA methylation. Heritability estimates vary across the genome (mean=19%) and interaction analyses reveal thousands of sites with sex-specific heritability as well as sites where the environmental variance increases with age. Integration with previously published data illustrates the impact of genome and environment across the lifespan at methylation sites associated with metabolic traits, smoking and ageing. These findings demonstrate that our catalogue holds valuable information on locations in the genome where methylation variation between people may reflect disease-relevant environmental exposures or genetic variation.
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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.