DNA Methylation States Mix and Mingle on the Nuclear Dance FloorAugust 31, 2010Remember those lame junior high dances, where most of us stood silently and uncomfortably against the gym wall, watching our wilder classmates rock out to Bon Jovi on the dance floor? Some researchers think that methylated and unmethylated promoters in tumors segregate themselves in the same way: silenced genes gather in heterochromatin at the nuclear […]
The Epigenetics of Mental IllnessAugust 31, 2010Mental disorders like depression will likely affect 1/6 of Americans at some point in their life. That probability might be higher if you’re a Cleveland sports fan, but seriously, with mental illnesses affecting hundreds of millions of people globally each year, we’re glad to see an increasing focus on the epigenetics of these disorders. In […]
Mecp2, miR-212 Keep Cocaine Addiction In CheckAugust 18, 2010Anyone who’s ever seen an episode of Celebrity Rehab knows that addiction is a very complicated issue, and as scientists recently found out, even the molecular basis of addiction is no simple matter. A group led by Paul Kenny at Scripps Florida studied cocaine use in rats that were allowed to dose themselves with the […]
5-Hydroxymethylcytosine Gets SensitiveAugust 17, 2010One of the great things about science is that whenever a new problem presents itself, there are always some members of the community who set out to find innovative solutions. In this case, it’s been a bear to detect and quantify 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5-hmC) but some cagey researchers at the Ludwig Maximilians University (LMU) in Munich, […]
Protein Methylation: The Other Epigenetic RegulatorAugust 13, 2010While epigenetic mechanisms like DNA methylation and chromatin remodeling get most of the attention, more is being learned everyday about other important mechanisms that are just now starting to get their share of the limelight. In this article contributed by John Aletta at CH3 Biosystems, he explains how protein arginine methylation is also a key […]
Expert Insight: 5-hmC Analysis MethodsAugust 5, 2010Last year’s discovery of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5-hmC) caused some epigenetics researchers to suffer a crisis of confidence, provoking many hours of soul-searching questions such as “are my methylation data really accurate?” and “what if what I thought was gene silencing is really activation?” Although current estimates place 5-hmC levels at only a fraction of the 5-mC […]
Uncovering 5hmC’s Link to Stem Cell Self-RenewalAugust 3, 2010The search is on to figure out a role for the recently discovered 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) base. While it’s still up in the air if 5hmC will play a main character or just be cast as an extra , this new study in Nature ties the mysterious modification to a demethylation pathway, regulated by Tet proteins, […]
EpiGenie 2010 Mid-Year Editor’s Favorites: DNA MethylationJuly 21, 2010We’re halfway through 2010, so we’ve decided to take a look back at some of the best epigenetics publications we’ve covered so far this year. Here are some of our favorite DNA Methylation headlines. CpG-SNPs If your methylation profiles have been looking a little fuzzy, it could be CpG-SNPs are to blame. CpG-SNPs where found […]
Genes Weigh Their Alternative Promoter OptionsJuly 8, 2010It’s always nice to have options, but nowadays there are often so many choices that you can drive yourself crazy making a decision, just ask LeBron James. A recent Nature paper shows that even genes need a little input from DNA methylation when they consider using alternative gene promoters. Joseph Costello at UCSF and colleagues […]
Triplex Oligos Enable Targeted DNA MethylationJuly 8, 2010There’s a new tool out there, and it’s made for all of those researchers out there who have ever pointed to a bit of genomic sequence and wondered, “what would happen if that promoter CpG was methylated right there?” A new technique detailed in the latest issue of Bioconjugate Chemistry can help answer questions like […]
