M

Mario F. Fraga

Universidad de Oviedo

ORCID: 0000-0001-8450-2603

Publishes on Epigenetics and DNA Methylation, RNA modifications and cancer, Cancer-related gene regulation. 491 papers and 40.5k citations.

491Publications
40.5kTotal Citations

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Top publicationsby citations

Epigenetic differences arise during the lifetime of monozygotic twins
Mario F. Fraga, Esteban Ballestar, Maria F. Paz et al.|Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences|2005
Cited by 3.6kOpen Access

Monozygous twins share a common genotype. However, most monozygotic twin pairs are not identical; several types of phenotypic discordance may be observed, such as differences in susceptibilities to disease and a wide range of anthropomorphic features. There are several possible explanations for these observations, but one is the existence of epigenetic differences. To address this issue, we examined the global and locus-specific differences in DNA methylation and histone acetylation of a large cohort of monozygotic twins. We found that, although twins are epigenetically indistinguishable during the early years of life, older monozygous twins exhibited remarkable differences in their overall content and genomic distribution of 5-methylcytosine DNA and histone acetylation, affecting their gene-expression portrait. These findings indicate how an appreciation of epigenetics is missing from our understanding of how different phenotypes can be originated from the same genotype.