Several recent publications sought to understand the epigenetic effects of alcohol, specifically, the epigenetic regulation of neuronal stem cells, within the space of genome-wide DNA methylation (known as the methylome). These articles provide a valuable lesson in how methylation epigenetic data derived from genome-wide studies can be prepared and analyzed. In this review, we will discuss the bioinformatic strategies in four key articles in their attempts to elucidate the epigenetic properties of ethanol regulation during early differentiation and neural stem cell (NSC) differentiation as models of FAS. Using the power of bioinformatics, one can identify large sets of genes and ultimately understand the mechanisms of alcohol exposure and DNA modification in AUD and FAS.
