Previous observations have demonstrated that embryonic exposure to the endocrine disruptor vinclozolin during gonadal sex determination promotes transgenerational adult onset disease such as male infertility, kidney disease, prostate disease, immune abnormalities and tumor development. The current study investigates genome-wide promoter DNA methylation alterations in the sperm of F3 generation rats whose F0 generation mother was exposed to vinclozolin. A methylated DNA immunoprecipitation with methyl-cytosine antibody followed by a promoter tilling microarray (MeDIP-Chip) procedure was used to identify 52 different regions with statistically significant altered methylation in the sperm promoter epigenome. Mass spectrometry bisulfite analysis was used to map the CpG DNA methylation and 16 differential DNA methylation regions were confirmed, while the remainder could not be analyzed due to bisulfite technical limitations. Analysis of these validated regions identified a consensus DNA sequence (motif) that associated with 75% of the promoters. Interestingly, only 16.8% of a random set of 125 promoters contained this motif. One candidate promoter (Fam111a) was found to be due to a copy number variation (CNV) and not a methylation change, suggesting initial alterations in the germline epigenome may promote genetic abnormalities such as induced CNV in later generations. This study identifies differential DNA methylation sites in promoter regions three generations after the initial exposure and identifies common genome features present in these regions. In addition to primary epimutations, a potential indirect genetic abnormality was identified, and both are postulated to be involved in the epigenetic transgenerational inheritance observed. This study confirms that an environmental agent has the ability to induce epigenetic transgenerational changes in the sperm epigenome.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 9. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 19 March 2026.
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#5,954,010
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#28,928
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#367
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Altmetric has tracked 34,526,284 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 82nd percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 224,989 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 17.2. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 74% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 156,289 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 81% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 1,192 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 68% of its contemporaries.
