Dynamic RNA Methylation Emerges as New Player in the Epigenetic LandscapeApril 29, 2013Methylation is a hot topic in the field of epigenetics whether it’s occurring on the cytosines of DNA or its histone protein friends. With a relatively well-known set of enzymes, methylation marks are dynamically modified in order to regulate gene expression. However, the revisiting of a RNA modification discovered in the 70’s has come to […]
SCANning Single Molecules to Pinpoint Co-Occurrence of Epigenetic MarksApril 24, 2013Just because two people live on the same street doesn’t necessarily mean they live that close to each other or in the same house, yet that’s what you often have to assume when using ChIP to detect epigenetic modifications. Either that, or you have to use tons of sample and/or a labor-intensive method to figure […]
Looking Under the Hood of Gene Regulation with Dr. Steven HenikoffApril 24, 2013Dr. Henikoff discusses the next phase in gene regulation research, establishing causality in the gene expression flow and who the key players are. Looking Under the Hood of Gene Regulation The field in general I think has changed,so in just a few years, I think what we’ve seen is that there is much more gettingdown to nitty gritty, what’s underneath the hood, as opposed to the chrome on the top. And that comes through when we begin to understand what the relationship is between starting from a transcription factor causing expressionof a gene, basically causing RNA polymerase to move and what’s the interaction between RNA polymerase and nucleosomes, how that leads to histone modifications, how the histone modifications can help stabilize, for example, the nucleosomes. So these are the questions that we’re sort of beating around the bush and about a couple of years ago, but now I think we’re beginning to understand how it all happens and what the chain of causality is, for example. And also, not just withthe players are but what the interactions are and how it actually works dynamically. So we’d like to think of chromatin in […]
Epigenetic Mechanisms in AutismApril 24, 2013Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) refers to related neurodevelopmental disorders characterized by deficits in reciprocal communication and social interactions, coupled with restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior, interests and activities. Because ASD tends to run in families, much effort has been spent on genetic analyses to identify genetic variations that either cause or elevate risk for […]
RNA Methylation in lncRNAs Does XISTApril 24, 2013Building on work from the 1970s, the era of orange shag carpet and bell bottoms, researchers report that poly(A) RNA gets methylated on cytosines, just like other RNAs and DNA. These methylated cytosines—in the long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) HOTAIR and XIST—could also be important for their functions. Methylated cytosines in DNA are old news, and […]