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DNA Methylation and Cell-Type Distribution

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Computational and Statistical Epigenomics

Part of the book series: Translational Bioinformatics ((TRBIO,volume 7))

Abstract

Epigenetic processes form the principal mechanisms by which cell differentiation occurs. Consequently, DNA methylation measurements are strongly influenced by the DNA methylation profiles of constituent cell types as well as by their mixing proportions, raising the potential for confounding of direct molecular associations at single CpG dinucleotides by associations between overall cell-type distribution with phenotype or exposure. In this chapter we review the literature on epigenetics and cell mixture; we then present techniques for deconvolution of DNA methylation measurements, either in the presence or in the absence of reference data. Finally, we present several data analysis examples.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Biological and Population Health Sciences, College of Public Health and Human Sciences, Corvallis, OR, USA

    E. Andrés Houseman

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Correspondence to E. Andrés Houseman .

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  1. CAS Key Laboratory of Computational Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Max-Planck Gesellschaft Partner, Institute for Computational Biology, Shanghai, China

    Andrew E. Teschendorff

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Houseman, E.A. (2015). DNA Methylation and Cell-Type Distribution. In: Teschendorff, A. (eds) Computational and Statistical Epigenomics. Translational Bioinformatics, vol 7. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9927-0_2

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