Analysis of Sex-dependent Epigenome

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What is known about the biology of sexual differences is that there are striking differences in the biological functions that can lead to human and animal diseases. Epigenetic systems are recognized as memory systems for inheritable gene functions. DNA methylation plays a role the main epigenetic regulation mechanism in mammals. A unique feature of the mammalian genome is that there are numerous tissue-dependent and differentially methylated regions (T-DMRs), which include genes and their regulatory elements. We have developed D-REAM, a genome-wide DNA methylation analysis method using a genome tiling array, for T-DMRs profiling with restriction tag-mediated amplification. This research project highlights the epigenome of tissues and cells in male and female respectively. We found that there are T-DMRs that are differentially methylated between male and female animals, other than those found in the sex chromosomes and the genomic regions related to sexual organs development.