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EPIGENETICS

Metastable epialleles are stable in their instability

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Metastable epialleles refer to loci with variable methylation states among individuals without underlying genetic differences. Although these loci have generally been assumed to be vulnerable to environmental influence, a new study reports their remarkable metastable epigenetic robustness toward a range of physiological, chemical and dietary disruptions in mammals.

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Fig. 1: VM-IAPs acquire DNA methylation in a probabilistic fashion during early development, before germ-lineage formation, thus leading to interindividual differences in genetically identical mice, with high intraindividual methylation concordance across tissues.

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  1. Institut Curie, INSERM, CRNS, PSL University, Paris, France

    Deborah Bourc’his

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  1. Deborah Bourc’his
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Correspondence to Deborah Bourc’his.

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Bourc’his, D. Metastable epialleles are stable in their instability. Nat Genet 53, 1121–1123 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-021-00907-x

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