HistoneHits: A Must Have Compilation of Histone Mods for the Chromatin Researcher Who Has EverythingFebruary 19, 2009We often wonder what is in the top chromatin researchers iPod playlists. What gets them through those late night, seemingly countless ChIP assays. Although we hope Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby,” or Young MC’s “Bust a Move,” are represented, we know each of us has our own Greatest Hits. Recently, a team at Johns Hopkins […]
Oncogenic Viruses MethylomesFebruary 17, 2009To methylate, or not to methylate? That is the question. Whether ’tis nobler in the genome to suffer the onslaughts and diversions of oncogenic DNA viruses or, by inactivating, disguise them (from immune surveillance). When researchers used bisulfite sequencing to examine the methylomes of three double-stranded DNA viruses (Human Papilloma Viruses (HPV) 16 and 18, […]
Oh, Behave! How Chromatin Remodeling Regulates Behavioral ResponseFebruary 17, 2009Did your behavior at the lab holiday party elicit whispered comments, furtive glances, and snide snickers from co-workers the next day? Although we don’t know exactly what possessed you to dance on the boss’s coffee table wearing your DNA necktie as a headband, researchers have shown that some physiological and pathological behaviors result from epigenetic […]
miRNAs Adding Restraint to Alu DuplicationFebruary 17, 2009February 17th, 2009. Even in evolution there can be too much of a good thing. What if a transposon broke free and replicated whenever it wanted to, and integrated wherever it wanted to, unchecked? How long would the host be around? Such may have happened to Alu repeats in primates about 40 million years ago. […]
miRNA-29b at the Bedside?February 16, 2009Start stocking the miRNA-29b in your medicine cabinet. A group of researchers from The Ohio State University recently cranked out some great data demonstrating how miRNAs work to regulate DNA methylation in acute myeloid leukemia (AML), outlining a potential therapeutic use of mir-29b. The study reveals how miR-29b works by targeting DNA Methyltransferases (DNMTs), the […]
The miRNA Importin BizFebruary 10, 2009For all we know about miRNA – how it’s made, what it does, how it folds, … – comparatively little is known about how the Argonaute (Ago) proteins allow miRNA to do what it does. Yet thanks to a group out of Germany, we now understand a bit more of the machinery that lets miRNA […]
Chromatin Maps Conserved Missing linc-RNAFebruary 3, 2009 Researchers in Boston figured that maybe they could find something interesting in all the non-protein, non-miRNA, non-siRNA genes. They did…linc-RNAs. Through a massive sequencing of ChIP data they uncovered a chromatin “signature” for actively transcribed regions between known protein coding genes, and used this signature to identify about 1700 previously un-annotated stretches of the genome at […]
DNA Methylation Resuscitation in PlantsFebruary 3, 2009Conventional wisdom had it that once a methylated repeat sequence is heavily demethylated, there’s no turning back. Not only don’t they become remethylated, but subsequent generations inherit the epigenetic changes as well. But a group of European researchers have found that this isn’t always the case and there are at least two distinct classes of […]
Blast from the Past: Methylation Profiling of Archival Lymphoma SamplesFebruary 3, 2009Imagine that you could go back in time and analyze the DNA methylation profiles of long-ago cancer samples (not to mention recession-proof your investment portfolio). EpiGenie can’t help with the latter because our time machine is on the fritz, but we can tell you about a new study in which researchers profiled the methylomes of […]
Fixing Small RNA Detection in FFPE SamplesFebruary 2, 2009In situ hybridization (ISH) is great to tell how much miRNA is expressed where. But it’s not so easy to get a signal from low-abundance miRNAs in formalin-fixed tissue. Formaldehyde cross-links RNA to proteins, diminishing the ability of probes to recognize and bind to the RNA, and can modify some of the bases as well. […]