Fig. 7

Genomic organisation of DNAm sites representative of a DNAm pattern within the chromatin environment. We show Component 9 (related to Dimension 1—grandmaternal smoking) as an example. The perimeter ring shows the ideogram of the human autosomes with chromosome numbers. Unlike differentially methylated regions, which typically describe contiguous locations, genomic sites representing gwDNAm patterns (dark blue lines) are spread across a given chromosome and across a cell’s chromosomes. This is consistent with the finding that methylation related to complex traits is a genome-wide event. It is also in keeping with the interaction of non-contiguous domains of DNA by their physical proximation in 3D space through chromatin looping structures and promoter-anchored interaction sites (black lines). Regulatory mechanisms tend to occupy open chromatin areas. Such areas are marked by DNase I hypersensitivity sites (light blue lines). The three different coloured lines appear to populate together, much like how cities would concentrate the machinery required to “trade” information regarding foetal exposures across the genome, changing the global fate of the cell