epigenetics

Epigenetics and ncRNA Headlines

Get all the latest highlights from the literature and special features covering trending epigenetics, ncRNA, and gene regulation research.

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Bees Model Their Potential for Epigenomic Research

April 13, 2015

With spring in the air, the honeybees are already out and buzzing about and now an international team from Australia and Poland have created a different type of buzz with their research into 5hmC and its effect of bee’s behaviour. The importance of epigenetics in bees has already been suggested with the finding that honeybees use miRNAs to enable their […]

CRISPR Gets Creative with Histone Acetylation

April 9, 2015

There’s been a lot of firsts in the world of genome editing happening lately, from its application in human embryonic stem cells, the identification of a smaller more versatile Cas9, to its upgrade to efficiently using homology-directed repair. Now CRISPR-Cas9 is getting its feet wet with epigenome editing thanks to the clever folks in the Gersbach lab […]

DNMT1 Loss is Lethal in Human But Not Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells

April 2, 2015

Mouse models have been great to science, they’ve given insight into humans in ways simply not possible in humans. However, while there are striking similarities in the epigenetics of mice and men, there are also undoubtedly some fundamental differences. Now, a team from the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard consisting of the labs of Alexander Meissner, J. Keith Joung, and John […]

Sex On the Brain: DNA Methylation Defines Gender

March 31, 2015

A talented team from the University of Maryland has added some strong molecular evidence that DNA methylation is an active player in setting the sexual behaviors you’re born with. Sexuality has always been a complex topic. Typically it refers to presence or absence of certain sex organs. However, the concept of gender is more complex, as […]

H3K9me3: The Genomic Pacifier That Silences SINEs

March 30, 2015

Kids can be hard to handle, between dealing with drawing on the walls and public temper tantrums; therefore all parents need a successful tactic for keeping them under control. Short INterspersed Elements (SINEs) are like the chaotic kids of the genome. These repetitive sequences make up about 11% of our genome and because of their […]

The Long Route of MeCP2 in Transcription

March 24, 2015

A number of teams have already spent time in trying to uncover the path that leads from MeCP2 disruption to Rett syndrome, a severe neurodevelopmental disorder in the autism spectrum. Adding detail to MeCP2’s repressive function, a team led by Michael Greenberg gathered data from MeCP2 mouse mutants and patient samples, finding an unexpected clue in long-gene […]

5hmC: a Helping Hand in Drug Addiction

March 23, 2015

While there’s no doubting that one month of continuous cocaine exposure is going to have an effect on the brain, it seems that some of the molecular culprits behind the response and long-term effects are 5hmC and the TET protein family. An international research team studying addiction via cocaine show that repeat exposure downregulates the TET machinery in the brain’s reward centre, the nucleus […]

Novel Primate- and Tissue Specific miRNAs with Dr Isidore Rigoutsos

March 17, 2015

In this interview Dr Isidore Rigoutsos discusses his recent paper ‘Analysis of 13 cell types reveals evidence for the expression of numerous novel primate- and tissue-specific microRNAs‘ published in PNAS, February 2015. This paper shows the presence of many more miRNAs than previously thought and uncovers that the majority of these are in fact, cell-type […]

Our Favorite Findings from the Epigenomic Roadmap

March 10, 2015

For those of you with a keen eye, you’ll have already noticed the mass of Epigenomic Roadmap Studies published in Nature in February. In order to help you navigate this mountain of results we’ve highlighted some of our favorite findings from this collection of papers. Here’s our Top Five Findings: Enhancer-like Elements Take Center Stage in […]

Zymo Research 5-mC and Quest™ 5-hmC ELISAs Take DNA Methylation Screens Global

March 10, 2015

The concept of ‘Acting Locally’ has struck a chord with many folks these days on topics ranging from groceries to government, which makes it easy to forget the last part of that meme: which is to also ‘Think Globally’. The R&D team from Zymo Research has kept that bigger picture in mind, and developed their […]