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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Sperm-Derived Histone Modifications Orchestrate Human Paternal Heterochromatin Formation

January 11, 2015

Humans have developed elaborate systems such as script, books, computers and virtual networks to ensure that knowledge is preserved throughout multiple generations. Researchers led by Ester Baart at Erasmus MC in the Netherlands wanted to understand and uncover other mechanisms – in particular those developed by cells to preserve their epigenetic knowledge over generations. Owing to […]

Uncovering Neural Differentiation Step-by-Step

January 9, 2015

The Laetoli footprints made by humans 3.6 million years ago in Tanzania are perhaps the most famous footprints of all time. However, more recent footprints have been uncovered by the laboratories of Yechiel Elkabetz and Alexander Meissner. These epigenetic footprints represent each “step” in the process of neuronal differentiation from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs), […]

Smoking Damages the Epigenome for a LONG time

January 8, 2015

While we all know that smoking is bad for you, and even your baby, it seems that the effects last longer than you may think. Researchers from Imperial College London investigate and show that while there are epigenomic benefits to giving up smoking, there are also some changes that persist for what seems to be a lifetime. Previously, […]

Hi-C Captures KNOT: A Chromatin Conformation for all Chromosomes

January 1, 2015

Putting a modern twist on the holiday spirit, researchers from the University of Zurich (Switzerland) gift a new piece of chromatin architecture that welcomes each and every chromosome to its party. And it comes from a surprisingly festive plant; Arabidopsis. On a Hi-C run surveying chromatin architecture, the touring researchers encountered a number of landmarks. At first they came across the standard sights: […]

Plotting the Path to Pluripotency Uncovers Key Role of DNA Methylation

December 29, 2014

If you’ve read our recent piece ‘Reprogramming Roadmap Reveals Fuzzy New Stem Cells‘ you’ll already know how “Project Grandiose” [1, 2], the brainchild of Andras Nagy, identified a new pluripotent state (the F-class stem cell). While the discovery of this new class is thrilling, the main purpose of this grand project was to uncover the […]

A “Grandiose” Project Provides a Fuzzy New Future for iPSC Research

December 17, 2014

Induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSCs) research burst on to the scene in 2006 with a paper which has since spawned thousands of studies and has proved to be a quantum leap for regenerative medicine. This reached a crescendo this year when a Japanese patient became the first recipient of retinal cells generated from iPSCs made […]

Histone H2A.Z Subunit Exchange Controls Memory

December 17, 2014

Memory is one fancy cellular function that seems to be the niche of the epigenome. Through it a cell can remember its identity and past exposures. But what about that other type of memory? Ya know, neuroepigenetic memory. We’ve already seen that histone methylation has a role in long-term memories and altered histone acetylation (H4K12) is involved […]

Vitamin C Promotes ESC Self-Renewal by Modulating miRNA Expression

December 16, 2014

We all know “an apple a day, keeps the doctor away”, but it requires a lot of discipline to ensure that our diet contains enough vitamins. This holds especially true for the daily vitamin C uptake. Unfortunately, humans (and – for some mysterious reason – guinea pigs) lost the ability to synthesize this now essential […]

Alpha-ketoglutarate: Small Metabolite With Big Influence on Stem Cell Pluripotency

December 15, 2014

Many of us go through the morning ritual of picking up store-brewed coffee, although we could just as easily make it ourselves. Most mammalian cells feel the same about glutamine, which they require in abundance, even though glutamine is a non-essential amino acid. Now, stem cell researchers from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center show that glutamine […]

Dynamic Pseudouridylation of ncRNA and mRNA

December 15, 2014

Pseudouridine (Ψ) is not only the most abundant post-translational modification (PTM) of RNA in all organisms, but it is also amongst the first discovered, way back in the futuristic 50’s, where it was deemed the 5th nucleotide of RNA. Ψ doesn’t discriminate against cellular functions or evolutionary distinct species. And while studied intently in rRNA […]