"EpiMutation"

Question

[melissachua90]

If samples have both epigenetic modification and mutation, can they be considered part of epimutation?

For example, I have two sets of samples from the same TCGA cohort. I subset the mutation data to keep only samples with barcodes that also correspond to the epigenetics data. I then performed mutation analysis on this subset of data. Is this "epimutation" analysis?

Answer 1

[LChart]

I think the term "epimutation" is there to stress changes in epigenetic state that are inherited from parent cells through epigenetic inheritance. Analysis of such changes would then fall into "epimutation analysis," i.e., analysis of DNA methylation or histone post-translational modifications. In practice it's more-or-less the same thing as "differential methylation" (or differential histone PTM) analysis.

[melissachua90]

Should I classify my aforementioned study as "differential methylation analysis"?

[LChart]

It sounds like you just performed genetic mutation analysis on a subset of samples that have epigenetic data.