Fig. 4

Correlations between CpG methylation in the BACH2 and MGAT3 gene promoters and glycan structures measured from the same individuals of the Edinburgh and Florence cohorts, mapped to the glycan biosynthesis pathways. a Correlation coefficients between average CpG methylation in the assayed gene promoter fragments and glycan structure percentages are shown as blue (positive) or red (negative correlation) circles with their size and shade proportional to the correlation coefficient. Correlations without statistical significance (p > 0.05 after Bonferroni correction for multiple testing) are crossed. Columns represent 13 individual glycan structures and four derived traits (beige box). EDI Edinburgh cohort, FLO Florence cohort, Bisecting, percentage of all structures with bisecting N-acetylglucosamine, B/FA2 ratio of FA2B to FA2 structures, B/FA2G1 ratio of FA2BG1 to FA2G1 structures, B/FA2G2 ratio of FA2BG2 to FA2G2 structures. b Glycan biosynthesis pathways with the glycan structures, labels, and the enzymes mapped to correlation results for the MGAT3 gene. Light blue rectangles indicate positive, while light red rectangles indicate negative correlation between the glycan structures or traits and CpG methylation levels. Only correlations replicated across assays and/or cohorts are shown. The red rectangle around the MGAT3 enzyme reflects the negative correlation between CpG methylation and the derived trait B/FA2, which effectively measures enzyme activity at this step. MGAT3 N-acetilglucosaminyltransferase III (GnT-III), FUT8 fucosyltransferase 8, GalT1 galactosyltranserase 1, ST6GalT1 Beta-galactoside alpha-2,6-sialyltransferase 1