Author:
Porter Hunter L.,Ansere Victor A.,Undi Ram Babu,Hoolehan Walker,Giles Cory B.,Brown Chase A.,Stanford David,Huycke Mark M.,Freeman Willard M.,Wren Jonathan D.
Abstract
AbstractDNA methylation data has been used to make “epigenetic clocks” which attempt to measure chronological and biological aging. These models rely on data derived from bisulfite-based measurements, which exploit a semi-selective deamination and a genomic reference to determine methylation states. Here, we demonstrate how another hallmark of aging, genomic instability, influences methylation measurements in both bisulfite sequencing and methylation arrays. We found that non-methylation factors lead to “pseudomethylation” signals that are both confounding of epigenetic clocks and uniquely age predictive. Quantifying these covariates in aging studies will be critical to building better clocks and designing appropriate studies of epigenetic aging.
Publisher
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory