Active DNA Demethylation as a Source of DNA Damage at EnhancersJanuary 3, 2023Paint a self-portrait, build a house? If, instead, your more achievable New Year’s resolution was to be more active, new and exciting findings on how the abundance of single-strand DNA breaks (SSBs) at neuronal enhancers represents an intermediate of active DNA demethylation will be right down your alley! Researchers led by Wei Wu and André […]
Can Engineering Chromodomains Take Histone Methylation to “Affinity” and Beyond!?December 4, 2022The troupe of “toys” we use to explore the world of histone methylation just gained a new friend thanks to a playful team of epigenetic engineers who have taken histone modification-reading chromodomains to “affinity” and beyond! Researchers led by Gianluca Veggiani (Louisiana State University, USA) and Sachdev Sidhu (University of Waterloo, Canada) knew that histone-modification […]
eBook: Epigenetics & DNA MethylationNovember 21, 2022One of the longest-known and most studied epigenetic markers is DNA methylation, which can regulate gene expression and genomic organization in nearly all organisms. In eukaryotes, the primary modification of DNA is found in cytosines (C), where DNA Methyltransferases mediate the transfer of a methyl group to cytosines, converting them to 5-methylcytosine (5-mC), minor modifications […]
Can New RNA Modification Profiling Tools Help in Your Epitranscriptomic Bid for Glory?November 21, 2022Two new sequencing methods may just make your day if you happen to be bidding for glorious insights into the epitranscriptome. Inspired by the bisulfite conversion used to assay DNA methylation, BID-seq and GLORI now enable single-nucleotide transcriptome-wide profiling of two crucial RNA modifications – N6-methyladenosine (m6A) and pseudouridine (the C5-glycoside isomer of uridine). RNA […]
An Inflammatory Microclimate Seeds a Super-enhancer That Drives TumorigenesisNovember 7, 2022While microclimates shape environments along coastlines and urban jungles, this phenomenon isn’t restricted to macroscopic landscapes; now, a new study provides evidence that inflammatory signaling from the tumor microenvironment (TME) alters the epigenetic landscape by inducing the formation of a super-enhancer (SE) that drives tumorigenesis. An environmentally-friendly team led by Ramon E. Parsons (Icahn School […]
