DNA methylation in orofacial clefting

了解可塑性表观遗传机制在出生缺陷中的作用是预防的直接途径 战略布局唇腭裂（OFC）是人类常见的结构性出生缺陷， 在800名新生儿中，这造成了严重的个人、家庭和社会负担。离岸金融中心的预防战略 是难以捉摸的，因为我们目前对致病因素的理解是不够的。流行病学和 传统的遗传学研究表明，OFCs是病因复杂的结果， 多因素遗传和环境影响。表观遗传机制是一个令人兴奋的新焦点， 理解OFCs的起源，因为它们介导了环境对基因组的影响 在敏感的胚胎期。该提案特别关注DNA甲基化，因为这 表观遗传机制是环境敏感的，并且是预防和治疗的实际目标 战略布局虽然有多方面的证据表明，DNA甲基化在口腔颌面部的生物学作用， 发展不清楚。我们已经建立了新颖的模型，并生成了使我们保持平衡的概念的关键证明 揭示DNA甲基化如何调节口面形态发生，并确定DNA 甲基化在调节OFC易感性中起作用。我们将应用整合的全基因组甲基化， 整体和单细胞转录组方法，以一种新的小鼠模型，其中OFCs的破坏， 颅神经嵴中的DNA甲基化。我们还将确定DNA甲基化在多因素中的作用。 OFC易感性通过整合多种环境和饮食调节DNA甲基化， 不完全渗透OFC的遗传（Wnt 9 b KO）和化学（Shh拮抗剂）小鼠模型。追求 这项研究将为DNA甲基化如何调节颅神经嵴提供基本的见解 生物学和orofacial形态发生，并提供了一个重要的基础，为未来的工作，询问的作用， 特定的甲基化事件。完成这些研究还将确定环境和饮食介导的 改变OFC易感性的甲基化-转录组反应，并为定义额外的 环境影响调节DNA甲基化并导致OFC风险。追求这条线 研究将推进我们制定病因复杂的分娩预防策略的长期目标 通过识别应受谴责的环境影响并定义其作用机制来消除缺陷。

Understanding the role of malleable epigenetic mechanisms in birth defects is a direct path to prevention strategies. Orofacial clefts (OFCs) of the lip and palate are common human structural birth defects, affecting 1 in 800 newborns, that pose serious individual, familial, and societal burdens. Prevention strategies for OFCs are elusive because our current understanding of causative factors is inadequate. Epidemiologic and traditional genetic studies have shown that OFCs are etiologically complex outcomes that result from multifactorial genetic and environmental influences. Epigenetic mechanisms are an exciting new focus in understanding the genesis of OFCs because they mediate the effect of environmental influences on the genome during sensitive embryonic periods. This proposal specifically focuses on DNA methylation because this epigenetic mechanism is environmentally sensitive and a practical target of prevention and therapeutic strategies. While implicated by multiple lines of evidence, the biological role of DNA methylation in orofacial development is unclear. We have established novel models and generated key proofs of concepts that poise us to uncover how DNA methylation regulates orofacial morphogenesis and to define the role that DNA methylation plays in modulating OFC susceptibility. We will apply integrated genome-wide methylation and bulk and single-cell transcriptome approaches to a novel mouse model in which OFCs result from disruption of DNA methylation in the cranial neural crest. We will also define the role of DNA methylation in multifactorial OFC susceptibility by integrating multiple environmental and dietary modulators of DNA methylation to genetic (Wnt9b KO) and chemical (Shh antagonist) mouse models of incompletely penetrant OFCs. Pursuit of the proposed studies will bring fundamental insight into how DNA methylation regulates cranial neural crest biology and orofacial morphogenesis and provide a critical foundation for future work interrogating the role of specific methylation events. Completion of these studies will also define environmental- and dietary-mediated methylome-transcriptome responses that alter OFC susceptibility and set the stage for definition of additional environmental influences that modulate DNA methylation and contribute to OFC risk. Pursing this line of investigation will advance our long-term goal of developing prevention strategies for etiologically complex birth defects by identifying culpable environmental influences and defining their mechanisms of action.