The Epitranscriptomic Results Are In: To Be Queen Bee, First Eat the Royal JellyMarch 19, 2021It must be jelly, royal jelly. Giving new meaning to the adage “you are what you eat”, exciting epitranscriptomic findings have us buzzing about how diet influences larval development and royal status in honeybees. In a process known as caste differentiation, female honeybees fed different diets become either sterile workers or fertile queens. These bees […]
A Pre-emptive Epigenetic Strike Can Stop Transplants from Going Viral!March 10, 2021While social media mavens may consider “going viral” the zenith of their existence, latent virus reactivation represents a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in transplant patients. Now, in an extremely “likable” study, a tweetable team of researchers has described how epigenetic inhibitors may be an efficient means of selectively purging viral reservoirs before transplantation […]
Diet Adds a Tasty New Plot Twist in The Tale of Paternal H3K4me3 TransmissionMarch 2, 2021The genetic tale of transgenerational epigenetic inheritance has just received a tasty twist in its latest installment focused on intergenerational effects. The latest story of this cereal … serial reveals how folate deficiency in the paternal diet influences embryonic development through H3K4me3 transmission. In a previous study, the lab of Sarah Kimmins (McGill University, Montreal, Canada) examined a mouse […]
dCas9-dMSK1 Provides the Potent Power of Programmable Histone PhosphorylationFebruary 20, 2021Time to move over histone methylation, the potent activating power of programmable histone phosphorylation joins the dCas9 epigenome editing toolbox and shows how it takes histone acetylation along for the ride. A rather active team of researchers led by Isaac B. Hilton (Rice University, Houston, TX, USA) knew that phosphorylation represents one of the most […]
Stat3 is a Mitochondrial Mastermind Behind Metabolic Control of DNA Methylation in Naïve Stem CellsFebruary 15, 2021We’ve seen that mitochondria can modify nuclear DNA methylation, but until recently, the identities of the masterminds behind how the powerhouse of the cell can affect epigenetic change in the nucleus have remained classified. Although Stat3 is most notably recruited by LIF to activate the pluripotency gene network in the nucleus, we also know that LIF […]
