Impact of genetic ancestry on chronological age prediction using DNA methylation analysis

• Published in: Forensic science international. Genetics supplement series 2017-12, Vol.6, p.e399-e400
• Main Authors: Fleckhaus, Jan, Freire-Aradas, Ana, Rothschild, Markus A., Schneider, Peter M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Age prediction; Buccal swab DNA; CpG methylation; Epigenetic analysis
• ISSN: 1875-1768; 1875-175X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.fsigss.2017.09.162

Several forensic age predictors based on DNA methylation have been developed, reporting a considerable number of CpG loci highly correlated with chronological age. Most of the published age prediction models so far were based on European samples, and therefore there is a need to explore additional worldwide populations. We performed a comprehensive analysis of methylation profiles from buccal mucosa samples of three independent population groups from Middle East, West Africa and Central Europe. For each population approx. 50 samples with an equal distribution of donor ages were collected. Using bisulfite pyrosequencing we analyzed the age dependent methylation changes at five CpG sites in the genes of ASPA, ITGA2B, PDE4C and ELOVL2 and predicted the donor ages using two previously reported age prediction models. Our results display significantly lower dispersions of methylations and thus errors of predicted ages in the Middle East population compared to the Central Europe and West African populations. Interestingly, the overall methylation variation was highly similar between the three populations at all investigated CpGs.