Guide: Key Restriction Enzymes for DNA Methylation AnalysisOctober 22, 2012Enzymes and, in particular, restriction enzymes have been invaluable assistants in the laboratory for decades, so it is not surprising that they have been instrumental in driving discoveries in epigenetics-related research as well. Enzymatic manipulation of methylated DNA has seen a tremendous amount of innovation over the last 30 years, making these DNA modifying enzymes great […]
Natural Antisense Transcripts within PseudogenesOctober 20, 2012EpiGenie recently reviewed the epigenetic text Non-Coding RNAs and Epigenetic Regulation of Gene Expression by Kevin Morris. To give you a little taste of the material covered in the book, here is a summary of one of the chapters: Natural Antisense Transcripts within Pseudogenes: An EST Survey by Enrique M. Muro and Miguel A. Andrade-Navarro […]
Epigenetic Regulators (miRNAs, lncRNAs) Get Regulated EpigeneticallyOctober 20, 2012With Halloween coming up, perhaps it is fitting that the authors of two recent papers describe a “tangled web” of epigenetic regulations. In one paper, researchers suggest that DNA methylation and perhaps other epigenetic modifications disrupt long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) activity. In the other paper, a different team shows that DNAm messes with the miRNA […]
DNA Hypermethylation of CpG Islands Doesn’t Contribute to Cancer Progression?October 9, 2012And in another example of turning conventional wisdom on its head, researchers from Scotland report that aberrant DNA hypermethylation of CpG island (CGI) promoters does not contribute to cancer development via silencing. Generally, those genes are already repressed before cancer even starts. Researchers have noticed for a long time that many genes’ CGI promoters are […]
Histone Variant H2A.Z Plays in Active and Repressive ElementsOctober 9, 2012In this election season, few people are on the fence about their choice for U.S. president. But histone H2A.Z seemingly votes on both sides of the transcription —hanging out at active regulatory elements and at repressive ones. Researchers in Boston figured out how H2A.Z does this, and it may have to do with the different […]