Retention of paternal DNA methylome in the developing zebrafish germline

In mammals, DNA methylation undergoes two rounds of developmental remodelling; in primordial germ cells and in the pre-implantation embryo. However, it is currently unclear whether such DNA methylome reprogramming is more broadly conserved among vertebrates. This work led by Ksenia Skvortsova from our lab, published today in Nature Communications, demonstrates inheritance of the paternal methylation pattern in developing germ cells and absence of genome-wide reprogramming events. This study was published back to back with a similar study from the Hore lab (University of Otago).