Base Resolution Profiling Details the Intricacies of the m1A RNA ModificationNovember 4, 2017Insurance contracts, loan agreements, and scientific studies; while it’s easy to pretend that we know what´s going on after a quick skim, we often require a detailed interpretation of the complex combinations of letters, numbers, symbols, and accents to gain a fuller comprehension of the matter at hand. In the realm of our epitranscriptomic language, […]
High-Resolution Hi-C Delivers High-End Chromatin Conformation Maps of Neural DevelopmentNovember 2, 2017Hi-C-based three-dimensional chromatin conformation analysis is currently living the high-life, with multiple high-impact studies recently employing this high-flying molecular technique to gain new insight into the cell cycle, fertilization, and reprogramming. Now, researchers under the high command of Boyan Bonev and Giacomo Cavalli (Université de Montpellier, France) have applied this high-class technique to understand how […]
Your Brain on Stress: The Role of Dynamic DNA 6mA ModificationOctober 30, 2017Stress has a way of getting under our skin, where it can sink in so deep that it modifies our brain’s DNA. While it can alter DNA cytosine modifications, such as 5-methylcytosine (5mC), a new role for the N6-methyladenine (6mA) modification in stress response has now emerged. DNA 6mA has recently made the grade as […]
UBE3A Networks with Other Imprinted Genes to Shape Neurodevelopment and AutismOctober 24, 2017Networking shapes our brains in many ways; whether it be in a professional, social, or genomically imprinted fashion. Linking us into the latter, new findings from the lab of Janine LaSalle at the University of California, Davis, uncover a hub in an imprinted gene network critical to neurodevelopment. The imprinted 15q11-q13 locus is involved in […]
Neuron-specific Methylome Analysis Reveals BRCA1 as a New Pathogenic Contributor to Alzheimer’s DiseaseOctober 23, 2017Whether it is for the billing of a new film, the release of an album, or in the understanding of the pathogenesis of a disease, figuring out who the contributors are and what role they play represents an important first step. In the case of the sporadic neurodegenerative disorder Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), we know that […]