Sugar Sticks it to Histones and Causes Problems for Chromatin ArchitectureApril 15, 2019Many of us have been lectured by our dentist about eating those delicious, sticky candies. Now, as it turns out, those cavity-causing sugars not only stick to your teeth but can stick to your histones too! Through a non-enzymatic process known as glycation, a glucose group is covalently attached to specific amino acids, which can […]
Reactivating “Fossil” Enhancers from Embryonic Development in Adult TissuesApril 10, 2019The Jurassic Park movies got the whole world excited about resurrecting dinosaurs from fossilized DNA, but more recent findings that the half-life of DNA is only 521 years mean that dream is science fiction. So, while the finer details of dinosaur genomes may be lost in the fossil record, new work has dug up epigenomic […]
Histone Demethylases Have a “Sixth Sense” about Oxygen Levels!April 7, 2019Many people make dubious claims of being endowed with more than the five traditionally recognized senses; their “sixth sense” providing the extrasensory perception needed to converse with spirits and ghosts and predict the future, among other fanciful claims. While there is a lack of any evidence for extrasensory powers and paranormal activity, robust studies have […]
Inflammation in the Information Age: Multi-Tissue Chromatin and Transcriptional States of Mammalian AgingMarch 26, 2019We’re living in the information age―the age of supercomputers, big data, and machine learning―and the epigenetics field is capitalizing on these capabilities. New research from the lab of Anne Brunet at Stanford University harnesses the power of the ‘information age’ to provide insight on the ‘inflammation age’―that is, changes in the epigenetic landscape that lead […]
Not Just Idle Chit-chat! – Histone and RNA Methylation Crosstalk Regulates Gene ExpressionMarch 24, 2019While many see chit-chat and gossip as a tiresome but inevitable part of life, epigenetic eavesdropping has recently demonstrated that the tight regulation of gene expression relies on some close-quarters methylation crosstalk! The molecular back-and-forth uncovered occurs between the transcription elongation-associated H3K36me3 histone modification and the prevalent and essential post-transcriptional N6-methyladenosine (m6A) mRNA modification. So […]
