Robert A. Waterland

TL;DR: It is shown that disease- and trait-associated genetic variants are enriched in tissue-specific epigenomic marks, revealing biologically relevant cell types for diverse human traits, and providing a resource for interpreting the molecular basis of human disease.

TL;DR: The results show that dietary methyl supplementation of a/a dams with extra folic acid, vitamin B12, choline, and betaine alter the phenotype of their Avy/a offspring via increased CpG methylation at the AvY locus and that the epigenetic metastability which confers this lability is due to the Avy transposable element.

TL;DR: It is reported that maternal dietary genistein supplementation of mice during gestation, at levels comparable with humans consuming high-soy diets, shifted the coat color of heterozygous viable yellow agouti (Avy/a) offspring toward pseudoagouti, providing the first evidence that in utero dietarygenistein affects gene expression and alters susceptibility to obesity in adulthood by permanently altering the epigenome.

TL;DR: It is suggested that strategies for future human epidemiologic studies to identify causal associations between early exposures, long-term changes in epigenetic regulation, and disease, which may ultimately enable specific early-life interventions to improve human health, are suggested.

TL;DR: This review focuses on early nutritional influences on cytosine methylation and proposes that certain genomic regions, including genomically imprinted domains and specific transposon insertion sites, are especially labile to such influences.