DNA methylation articles from across Nature Portfolio

Molecular tests that can determine the tissue of origin of cancers of unknown primary (CUP) are still needed. Here, the authors develop a DNA methylation profiling assay and a machine learning classifier to predict the origin of metastatic tumours in CUP patients using formalin-fixed, paraffin embedded samples.

Loss-of-function mutations in the chromatin remodelling protein HELLS result in humoral immune deficiency. Authors here show in a conditional knockout mouse model that HELLS controls the kinetics of a typical germinal center response by DNA methylation, its absence leading to either the appearance of memory-B cell markers or a metabolic state change typical of plasma cells.

Leveraging a single regression model based on conserved cytosines, we can now measure age in all mammalian tissues. This pan-mammalian epigenetic clock model confirms that aging is conserved across mammalian species at select regions of the DNA, which will accelerate the applicability of research findings from model organisms to humans.

A recent study performed directed C5-cytosine methylation of CpG islands to demonstrate that acquired methylation at critical loci could be reestablished for multiple generations in mice. This work provides a manipulatable system to examine how non-genetic information is transmitted across generations to regulate complex phenotypes.