Single-Cell Epigenetics of Human Embryos is No Longer too Cool for scCOOL-seq!June 24, 2018The single cells of the developing human embryo are kinda awesome, but maybe they’ve grown a tad arrogant, perhaps a little “too cool for school”? They always hang around alone or in small cliques of similar cells, while the hippest scientists have only recently developed techniques, such as scNOMe-seq and scNMT-seq, trendy enough to begin […]
SPRITE: A Refreshing New Approach for Identifying Higher-Order Genomic StructureJune 11, 2018Are you looking for a refreshing new nuclear organization assay this summer? Well look no further than SPRITE, it will quench your thirst for a better DNA conformation assay. There are a lot of methods for assessing higher-order DNA structure, but they mostly fall into two categories: proximity ligation and in situ imaging. Proximity ligation […]
C. elegans Histone Memory of a Tropical VacationMay 14, 2018Most of us wouldn’t mind taking a tropical vacation, and we’re all likely to snap a few selfies to capture vacation memories. While the humble Caenorhabditis elegans may lack the latest phone and accompanying selfie stick, it makes up for it with epigenetic memory of warm weather vacations. More specifically, worms raised at higher temperatures undergo […]
EpiTOF Histone Modification Analysis Reveals How Aging Cells Grow Apart!May 9, 2018Some say that all babies look the same – small, warm bags of tears and mayhem – with significant differences only appearing as we grow older and grow apart from our newborn brethren (and sistren!). Our burgeoning epigenome may react to aging in a very similar manner, with age-related losses and gains of DNA methylation combining […]
CRISPR Live-cell Imaging Captures CLINGing ChromosomesMarch 28, 2018An old teddy bear with an eye missing, a dog-eared children’s book, or a ragged musty-smelling blanket; we all “cling” on to certain treasured objects, although we usually wish to keep them secret from the world! However, this isn’t the case for researchers from the laboratory of John Rinn (Harvard University, Cambridge, USA), who have […]
Transgenerational Epigenetic Inheritance of a Trio of Epigenomic Changes Induced by DDTMarch 27, 2018DNA methylation has long been the shining star of transgenerational epigenetic inheritance work, with other mechanisms signing backup. But now, the solo act has now become a trio, with histone modifications and non-coding (ncRNA) stepping into the limelight. For an in utero exposure to be truly transgenerational, and not an intergenerational effect, it must impact […]
Embrace Your Age! Age-related H4K16ac Gains Protect Your Brain from Developing Alzheimer’s DiseaseMarch 19, 2018In our quest for the fountain of youth, we often find ourselves attracted to anything that will fight off the signs of aging. But now, the first genome-wide analysis of a specific histone modification in the brains of human patients affected by Alzheimer’s disease (AD) demonstrates that we should embrace the epigenetic changes that come […]
The Single-Cell Trifecta: Nucleosome Occupancy, DNA Methylation, and Gene ExpressionFebruary 27, 2018While recent advancements let us map the epigenome of a single-cell, the same studies can leave us a bit single-minded when facing the many layers of the epigenetic landscape. Thankfully, to quench our integrative omics thirst, a clever new technique reveals that just because you’re looking at single cells doesn’t mean you only need to […]
Like a Fine Wine, Histone Variant H2A.Z Represses Memories and Accumulates with Age!February 6, 2018While aging works wonders for the taste of our ever-accumulating wine collection, the passage of the years is not as kind to our memories! To fully decipher the processes underlying learning and memory differences in the aging brain, the lab of Iva Zovkic at the University of Toronto Mississauga (Canada) recently expanded on past work […]
H3K4 Mono-Methylation Means More at Most EnhancersJanuary 16, 2018People can have some pretty strange tastes. From mayonnaise on fries to syrup on spaghetti, there’s no accounting for personal preference. Proteins can have some interesting preferences too, where some regions of the genome look better than others. To get at these preferences, a recent publication from the Laboratory of Bing Ren at UC San […]
