Novel Differentially Methylated Regions Identified by Genome-Wide DNA Methylation Analyses Contribute to Racial Disparities in Childhood Obesity

Priyadarshni Patel; Vaithinathan Selvaraju; Jeganathan Ramesh Babu; Xu Wang; Thangiah Geetha

doi:10.3390/genes14051098

Novel Differentially Methylated Regions Identified by Genome-Wide DNA Methylation Analyses Contribute to Racial Disparities in Childhood Obesity

Genes (Basel). 2023 May 17;14(5):1098. doi: 10.3390/genes14051098.

Authors

Priyadarshni Patel¹, Vaithinathan Selvaraju¹, Jeganathan Ramesh Babu^{1

2

3}, Xu Wang^{3

4

5}, Thangiah Geetha^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Nutritional Sciences, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849, USA.
² Boshell Metabolic Diseases and Diabetes Program, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849, USA.
³ Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849, USA.
⁴ Department of Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849, USA.
⁵ HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, Huntsville, AL 35806, USA.

Abstract

The magnitude of the childhood obesity epidemic and its effects on public health has accelerated the pursuit of practical preventative measures. Epigenetics is one subject that holds a lot of promise, despite being relatively new. The study of potentially heritable variations in gene expression that do not require modifications to the underlying DNA sequence is known as epigenetics. Here, we used Illumina MethylationEPIC BeadChip Array to identify differentially methylated regions in DNA isolated from saliva between normal weight (NW) and overweight/obese (OW/OB) children and between European American (EA) and African American (AA) children. A total of 3133 target IDs (associated with 2313 genes) were differentially methylated (p < 0.05) between NW and OW/OB children. In OW/OB children, 792 target IDs were hypermethylated and 2341 were hypomethylated compared to NW. Similarly, in the racial groups EA and AA, a total of 1239 target IDs corresponding to 739 genes were significantly differentially methylated in which 643 target IDs were hypermethylated and 596 were hypomethylated in the AA compared to EA participants. Along with this, the study identified novel genes that could contribute to the epigenetic regulation of childhood obesity.

Keywords: African American; DNA methylation; European American; childhood obesity; epigenetics; health disparities; novel genes.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Black or African American / genetics
Child
DNA Methylation
Epigenesis, Genetic
Genome-Wide Association Study
Health Status Disparities*
Humans
Pediatric Obesity* / ethnology
Pediatric Obesity* / genetics
White

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station and the Hatch Program of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, US Department of Agriculture, to J.R.B., X.W. and T.G. X.W. was also supported by the National Science Foundation EPSCoR RII Track-4 Research Fellowship 1928770.