DNA methylation in peripheral tissues and left-handedness

Sci Rep. 2022 Apr 4;12(1):5606. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-08998-0.

Abstract

Handedness has low heritability and epigenetic mechanisms have been proposed as an etiological mechanism. To examine this hypothesis, we performed an epigenome-wide association study of left-handedness. In a meta-analysis of 3914 adults of whole-blood DNA methylation, we observed that CpG sites located in proximity of handedness-associated genetic variants were more strongly associated with left-handedness than other CpG sites (P = 0.04), but did not identify any differentially methylated positions. In longitudinal analyses of DNA methylation in peripheral blood and buccal cells from children (N = 1737), we observed moderately stable associations across age (correlation range [0.355-0.578]), but inconsistent across tissues (correlation range [- 0.384 to 0.318]). We conclude that DNA methylation in peripheral tissues captures little of the variance in handedness. Future investigations should consider other more targeted sources of tissue, such as the brain.

Publication types

  • Meta-Analysis
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Child
  • CpG Islands
  • DNA Methylation*
  • Functional Laterality / genetics
  • Genome-Wide Association Study
  • Humans
  • Mouth Mucosa*