Father’s adolescent body silhouette is associated with offspring asthma, lung function and BMI through DNA methylation

Abstract

Boys’ pubertal overweight associates with future offspring’s asthma and low lung function. To identify how paternal overweight is associated with offspring’s DNA methylation (DNAm), we conducted an epigenome-wide association study of father’s body silhouette (FBS) at three timepoints (age 8, voice break and 30) and change in FBS between these times, with offspring DNAm, in the RHINESSA cohort (N = 339). We identified 2005 differentially methylated cytosine-phosphate-guanine (dmCpG) sites (FDR < 0.05), including dmCpGs associated with offspring asthma (119), lung function (178) and BMI (291). Voice break FBS associated with dmCpGs in loci including KCNJ10, FERMT1, NCK2 and WWP1. Change in FBS..