Histone Code Tips the Scales of DevelopmentMarch 31, 2014All of life is a balancing act. Whether you’re walking the tight-rope in a circus, or the epigenome regulating gene expression its all about treading a fine line. Recently a team from the Institute of Medical Biology in Singapore found, while examining frog development, that there is an optimal ratio of the repressive histone H3 and […]
DNA Methylation Sorts Out Cell Type HeterogeneityMarch 31, 2014While all of our cells share an almost indistinguishable genome, the variation created by the epigenome makes sorting and tackling the heterogeneity of cell types in your favorite homogenate a bigger task than finding a Yeti in a snow storm. Now a search and rescue team from Brown University has utilized DNA methylation profiles to breathe […]
Transgenerational Epigenetic Inheritance TimelineMarch 17, 2014Molecular inheritance is what genetics is all about, so here we highlight some examples where the epigenome plays a key role in inheritance.
Histone Acetyltransferase Circumin Eases Neuropathic PainMarch 17, 2014There’s definitely not much “gain” in Neuropathic Pain, but recently some Histone Acetyltranferases (HATs) have begun to show great promise in the clinic. This includes circumin, which is used to treat a number of conditions like Alzheimer’s, Cancer, Arthritis and Neuropathic Pain. Circumin is a (p300/CREB-binding protein (CBP)) inhibitor of HAT activity, but the biological mechanisms for […]
Bees Join the Genomic Imprinting HiveMarch 17, 2014The buzz had always been that DNA methylation mechanisms appear absent in most insects, but are known to occur in social insects, like bees. And while genomic imprinting has long been known to favor chromosomes in plants and loci in mammals, bumble-bee research from the University of Leicester came across another honeypot of epigenetic theories. Other […]