Epigenetic regulation of DAT gene promoter modulates the risk of externalizing and internalizing behaviors on a normative population. An explorative study

Accumulating research addressed epigenetic modifications and their role on behavioral phenotypes. We recently proposed to study methylation dynamics of two CpG motifs within the 5′ -UTR of dopamine transporter (DAT) gene. Starting from a normative population sample of young adults, we selected three sub-groups based on their prevalent symptoms: subjects were assigned to Internalizing, Externalizing and Low-risk sub-groups according to elevated scores in specific phenotypic scales. Using a new approach, we calculated three independent matrixes of cross-correlation between CpG methylation levels, one within each phenotypic sub-group, to determine in which dynamics did the sub-groups differ. We found specific cross-correlation patterns in Externalizing (CpG1, 2 and 3, opposite to the methylation at CpG6) and Internalizing individuals (CpG1 methylation opposite to CpG2, 3 and 6), while Low-risk individuals could follow both trends. The aim of our study was to look for a specific DAT methylation pattern, providing a biomarker that allows early identification of the risk for psycho-pathological deviance.