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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
FFPE: Friend or Foe to Chromatin Analysis?August 4, 2010It Seems like a no-brainer that chopping up proteins and denaturing DNA would have a dramatic effect on chromatin structure. Since so many cancer diagnoses, developmental studies, and examinations of chromatin structure in general rely on slices of wax-embedded tissue blocks, you’d think someone would take a comprehensive look at the effects of prepping those […]
iPS Cells Can’t Escape Their miRNA PastsAugust 4, 2010Even though the second season of The Jersey Shore takes place in Miami, the cast remain true to their ‘guido’ roots. I guess sometimes you just can’t change who you really are. The same is true for microRNA expression profiles of iPS cells. A recent review (Lakshmipathy et.al. 2010) from Ron Hart’s group at the […]
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: Non-Coding RNAJuly 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 Non-Coding RNA headlines. miRNA Decoys Psuedogenes finally get some love. Long considered to just be wasted genomic space, it turns out that they do […]
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 […]
EpiGenie 2010 Mid-Year Editor’s Favorites: ChromatinJuly 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 Chromatin headlines. Histone Mods and Alternative Splicing This publication might have popped up in the mainest of mainstream journals, but the focus is all […]
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 […]