Proceeding of Veterinary and Animal Science Days 2016, 8th- 10th June, Milan, Italy 

HAF © 2013 

Vol. III, No. 1s  ISSN: 2283-3927 

   

 

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Keywords 

Goat, methylation, puberty 

 

CORRESPONDING AUTHOR 

Stefano Frattini 

stefano.frattini@unimi.it 

 

JOURNAL HOME PAGE 

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The methylome of the hypothalamus of 

prepubertal and pubertal goats. 

S. Frattinia, E. Caprab, B. Lazzarib, B. Coizeta, D. Groppettia, P. 

Riccabonia, A. Pecilea, S. Arrighic, S. Chessab, B. Castiglionib, A. 

Giordanoa, A. Talentia, J. L. Williamsd, S. D. McKaye, P. Crepaldia, A. 

Stellab, G. Pagnaccoa 

aDepartment of Veterinary Medicine, University of Milan, Milan, Italy. 

bInstitute of Agricultural Biology and Biotechnology, National Research Council UOS of Lodi, 
Lodi, Italy. 

cDepartment of Health, Animal Science and FoodSafety, University of Milan, Milan, Italy 

dSchool of Animal and Veterinary Sciences, University of Adelaide, Roseworthy, Australia 

eDepartment of Animal and Veterinary Science, University of Vermont, USA  

 

Abstract 

Puberty is the fulfillment of fertility, a process involving physiological and morphological development. 

It is well known that the increased hypothalamic secretion of the gonadotropin-releasing hormone 

(GnRH) is essential for the activation of this process, even if the elements coordinating the timing of 

puberty have not been fully identified1,2. Recent studies provide proof that there is an epigenetic 

regulation of female puberty, and DNA methylation, the most studied epigenetic modification, plays a 

major role in it3. We analyzed DNA methylation patterns of 5 Alpine goats at their prepubertal stage 

and 5 that reached puberty in order to highlight differences in their methylome. Detection of 

methylated regions across the goat genome involved a Methyl Binding Domain (MBD) enrichment 

followed by deep sequencing (Hiseq2000 Illumina). The software ChIPseeqer4 permitted the 

identification of peaks corresponding to hyper-methylated regions. We have observed a higher 

methylation level in prepubertal goats. The distribution of the methylation peaks across the genome 

and within CpG islands per chromosome per group of animals has been analyzed. Furthermore, we have 

investigated differential methylation in genes associated with puberty. Specifically, Cbx7, coding for a 

core component of the Polycomb group silencing complex, and GnRHR, the gene coding for GnRH 

receptor, showed a higher number of peaks into two intragenic fragments within prepubertal goats. 

These results, accompanied by transcriptome analysis, provide a foundation for elucidating the role of 

DNA methylation in the complex mechanisms that drive puberty in goat species. 

The research was funded by GenHome project. 

 

References 

Lomniczi, A. et al.; 2013. Epigenetic control of female puberty. Nat. Neurosci. 16, 281–289   

Mayer, C. et al.; 2010. Timing and completion of puberty in female mice depend on estrogen receptor-signaling in kisspeptin neurons. Proc. 

Natl. Acad. Sci. 107, 22693–22698. 

Lomniczi, A. et al.; 2015.  Epigenetic regulation of puberty via Zinc finger protein-mediated transcriptional repression. Nat. Commun. 6, 10195. 

Giannopoulou, E. G. & Elemento, O.; 2011.  An integrated ChIP-seq analysis platform with customizable workflows. BMC Bioinformatics 12, 

277. 

 

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