Sunday, January 17, 2021

Methylated and unmethylated epialleles support variegated epigenetic silencing in Friedreich ataxia

Layne N Rodden, Yogesh K Chutake, Kaitlyn Gilliam, Christina Lam, Elisabetta Soragni, Lauren Hauser, Matthew Gilliam, Graham Wiley, Michael P Anderson, Joel M Gottesfeld, David R Lynch, Sanjay I Bidichandani, Human Molecular Genetics, ddaa267, doi:10.1093/hmg/ddaa267

The higher prevalence in mild FRDA of somatic FXN epialleles devoid of DNA methylation is consistent with variegated epigenetic silencing mediated by expanded triplet-repeats. The proportion of unsilenced somatic FXN genes is an unrecognized phenotypic determinant in FRDA, and has implications for the deployment of effective therapies.