- It has been widely reported that aging is accompanied by loss of heterochromatin and activation of
- 76 constitutively repressed genes [19, 23]. Indeed, the mean signal of all three repressive histone modifications has
- 77 a negative Pearson’s correlation (r) with age (Figure 2d), with H3K9me3 (Pearson’s r = -0.35, p-value = 9.7e-9)
- 78 and H3K27me3 (Pearson’s r = -0.24, p-value = 4.9e-5) reaching significance. Likewise, the mean signal of all
- 79 three activating histone marks has a positive Pearson’s correlation with age, with H3K4me3 (Pearson’s r = 0.2,
- 80 p-value = 1.7e-4) reaching significance. The mean signal of H3K4me1 barely changes with age, with Pearson’s
- 81 r of only -0.01. Our results add to the evidence from several previous studies indicating loss of heterochromatin
- 82 with aging.
