Rates of forward epimutations (i.e., stochastic gains of methylation) & backward epimutations (i.e., stochastic loss of methylation) in genes & transposable elements (TE)

Range genes forward 3.48×10^−4 backward 1.47×10^−3: TE forward 3.24×10^−4 backwards 1.2×10^−5 epimutation/CG site/haploid genome/generation
Organism Thale cress Arabidopsis thaliana
Reference Vidalis A, Živković D, Wardenaar R, Roquis D, Tellier A, Johannes F. Methylome evolution in plants. Genome Biol. 2016 Dec 20 17(1):264. doi: 10.1186/s13059-016-1127-5. p.7 left column bottom paragraphPubMed ID27998290
Primary Source [78] Van der Graaf A, Wardenaar R, Neumann DA, Taudt A, Shaw RG, Jansen RC, et al. Rate, spectrum, and evolutionary dynamics of spontaneous epimutations. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2015 112: 6676–81. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1424254112PubMed ID25964364
Comments P.7 left column bottom paragraph: "Like genetic mutations, CG epimutations are not uniformly distributed across the genome, but vary in rate between different annotation contexts [primary source, refs 76, 77, 112]. In A. thaliana, the highest combined forward and backward rates are found in genes, with the forward rate (3.48×10^−4) being about four times lower than the backward rate (1.47×10^−3). In TEs, by contrast, these rates are much reduced, and the forward rate (3.24×10^−4) exceeds the backward rate (1.20×10^−5) by a factor of 30 [primary source]."
Entered by Uri M
ID 113100