Epigenetic Status of Lebanese Dizygotic Twins

Abstract

Lebanon is an eastern Mediterranean country with a small population of only 4 million (Abbas et al. 2020). It is characterized for its distinct human genetic, cultural, ethnic, and religious diversity (Haber et al. 2011). The average live twinning births rate in Lebanon is 18.9/1000 (Romanos & Borjac, 2018). Twins can be either monozygotic (MZ) or dizygotic (DZ). The difference between them is how they are formed during embryogenesis (Hoekstra et al. 2008). When a single sperm fertilizes a single egg, it splits then in two genetically identical twins (Xu et al. 2015). However, in fraternal twins case, separate eggs are fertilized by separate sperm to yield genetically different twins (Martino et al. 2013).