Fig. 4

Maternal vitamin D deficiency perturbs DNA methylation at imprinted regions in adult G1 soma (liver) and germline (sperm). a Schematic representation of imprinted regions assessed for DNA methylation changes. White, gray, and black lollipops indicate unperturbed methylation states from fully hypomethylated to partially and fully hypermethylated alleles, respectively. Location of lollipop and location of arrows indicates parental methylation or expression from maternal alleles (above gene) and paternal allele (below gene); b–c Bar graphs depict average DNA methylation across samples in the respective treatment group assayed in adult G1 liver (b) and sperm (c) for each sample analyzed (in order from left to right N = 10, 11, 10, 9 for all loci except Grb10 N = 10, 10, 9, 8 and N = 10, 10, 10, 9 liver and sperm, respectively). For each sample, the average methylation for all CpGs assayed across the locus is represented as a dot within the bar graph (see the “Methods” section). DMR differentially methylated region, Cbs CTCF binding site, ICR imprinted control region. Median values are indicated and linked by a horizontal line between box and whisker plots. Asterisks (*) or (***) indicate p value <0.05 or 0.005 determined by t test within each cross; panel above each graph lists all statistically significant (p value <0.05) comparisons determined by regression analysis for overall diet-dependent effects (diet), diet-independent parent of origin effects (PO), and diet-dependent parent of origin effects (diet × PO). n.s. not significant