Epigenomic Modifications in Modern and Ancient Genomes

Epigenetic changes have been identified as amajor driver of fundamentalmetabolic pathways. More specifically, the importance of epigenetic regulatory mechanisms for biological processes like speciation and embryogenesis has beenwell documented and revealed the direct link between epigenetic modifications and various diseases. In this review, we focus on epigenetic changes in animals with special attention on human DNA methylation utilizing ancient and modern genomes. Acknowledging the latest developments in ancient DNA research, we further discuss paleoepigenomic approaches as the only means to infer epigenetic changes in the past. Investigating genome-wide methylation patterns of ancient humans may ultimately yield in a more comprehensive understanding of how our ancestors have adapted to the changing environment, and modified their lifestyles accordingly. We discuss the difficulties of working with ancient DNA in particular utilizing paleoepigenomic approaches, and assess new paleoepigenomic data, which might be helpful in future studies.

Automated summary

Epigenetic changes play a major role in fundamental metabolic pathways and have been closely linked to various diseases. This review focuses on the study of epigenetic changes in animals, with a special emphasis on human DNA methylation using ancient and modern genomes. Through ancient DNA research, we can infer past epigenetic changes and gain a comprehensive understanding of how our ancestors adapted to the changing environment and modified their lifestyles. However, working with ancient DNA presents challenges, but new paleoepigenomic data holds promise for future studies.