A “large-scale” view of the entire locus as a whole revealed a widespread but patterned response to maternal care among High and Low LG adult offspring (High – Low; Fig. 2 ). We observed peaks and valleys of H3K9 acetylation and DNA methylation levels throughout a number of regions, suggesting a widespread epigenomic response to variations in maternal care. The response to maternal care is not evenly distributed, with many sequences showing little or no response and clustered regions showing enhanced responses. In total, we found significant differential DNA methylation in 1413 probes and significant differences in H3K9 acetylation in 713 probes out of 44000 probes covering the region. Variations in epigenetic signaling across the locus appear within annotated genic regions (e.g., Fig. 2 – see blue highlight), and also in regions where no gene is annotated (e.g., Fig. 2 – see orange highlight). Transcriptional differences are similarly widespread ( Fig. 2 – see expression track). These results suggest that some but not all regions are associated with changes in epigenetic signaling associated with differences in maternal care, with broad epigenetic changes apparent within both genic and inter-genic areas.
