DNA methylation (DNAm) is an essential epigenetic mechanism for normal development, and its variation may be associated with diseases. High-throughput technology allows robust measurement of DNA methylome in population studies. Methylome-wide association studies (MWAS) scan DNA methylome to detect new epigenetic loci affecting disease susceptibility. MWAS is an emerging approach to unraveling the mechanism linking genetics, environment, and human diseases. Here I review the recent studies of genetic determinants and environmental modifiers of DNAm, and the concept for partitioning genetic and environmental contribution to DNAm. These studies establish the correlation maps between genome and methylome, and enable the interpretation of epigenetic association with disease traits. Recent findings suggested that MWAS was a promising genomic method to identify epigenetic predictors accounting for unexplained disease risk. However, new study designs, analytical methods and shared resources need to be implemented to address the limitations and challenges in future epigenomic epidemiologic studies.
Keywords: DNA methylation; epigenetic epidemiology; epigenetics; epigenome-wide association study (EWAS); epigenomics; gene-environment interaction; genetic epidemiology; methylome-wide association study (MWAS); monozygotic twin.