Abstract
Epigenetic modifications are considered to have an important role in evolution. DNA methylation is one of the best studied epigenetic mechanisms and methylation variability is crucial for promoting phenotypic diversification of organisms in response to environmental variation. A critical first step in the assessment of the potential role of epigenetic variation in evolution is the identification of DNA methylation polymorphisms and their relationship with genetic variations in natural populations. However, empirical data is scant in animals, and particularly so in wild mammals. Bats are considered as bioindicators because of their sensitivity to environmental perturbations and they may present an opportunity to explore epigenetic variance in wild mammalian populations. Our study is the first to explore these questions in the female great roundleaf bat (Hipposideros armiger) populations using the methylation-sensitive amplified polymorphism (MSAP) technique. We obtained 868 MSAP sites using 18 primer combinations and found (1) a low genomic methylation level (21.3 % on average), but extensive DNA methylation polymorphism (90.2 %) at 5′-CCGG-3′ sites; (2) epigenetic variation that is structured into distinct between- (29.8 %) and within- (71.2 %) population components, as does genetic variation; and (3) a significant correlation between epigenetic and genetic variations (P < 0.05). These results may also apply to other wild mammalian populations. The possible causes for the correlation between epigenetic and genetic variations are discussed.
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Acknowledgments
Our study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 30870371, 30900132 and 31030011), new teacher fund of doctorial program sponsored by Ministry of Education of China (grant no. 20090043120002), the Campus youth fund (grant no. 10QNJJ015) and the Programme of Introducing Talents of Discipline to Universities (grant no. B07017). We thank Dr. Oliver Bossdorf for guidance in questions about ecological epigenetics, and Drs. Xiaofang Zhong, Bao Qi and Linfeng Li for the help in experiments and data analysis. We thank the language editing service “Edanz Group Ltd., China” for the correction and improvement of the article’s English usage.
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Liu, S., Sun, K., Jiang, T. et al. Natural epigenetic variation in the female great roundleaf bat (Hipposideros armiger) populations. Mol Genet Genomics 287, 643–650 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00438-012-0704-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00438-012-0704-x