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 […]
EZH2: Cancer Villain or MDS Hero?July 7, 2010EZH2 takes a lot of abuse, and is often labeled as a dreaded oncogene , but like a movie villain who redeems themselves in the end, the histone methyltransferase isn’t all evil. According to two new papers published simultaneously in Nature Genetics, EZH2 may in fact function as a tumor suppressor in some blood cancers. […]
HIV miRNA Evolution at Lighting SpeedJuly 1, 2010The HIV reverse transcriptase is known to have a notoriously high error rate. In fact, if your office photocopier was that sloppy, you’d probably end up doing your own version of the classic copier-smashing scene from the movie Office Space. But the shoddy workmanship of HIV’s genome-copying enzyme actually benefits the virus by allowing it […]
Butyrate Boosts iPS Derivation via Epigenetic RemodelingJune 24, 2010Sometimes we all need a little boost to improve productivity, whether it’s a mid-afternoon Snickers bar or a venti quadruple-shot latte to jump start a weary mind. It turns out that human fibroblasts also like a little something extra to help them reprogram into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS). Researchers at Johns Hopkins University led […]
miRNAs Duped by Pseudogene DecoysJune 23, 2010Wouldn’t we all like to have a decoy, a look-alike who could stand in for us during life’s unpleasant moments? You know, like being forced to watch the “Dancing with the Stars” finale, or standing in line for 6+ hours at the DMV? A research effort spear-headed by Laura Poliseno at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical […]
miRNAs Enlist in Fight Against H1N1 InfectionJune 22, 2010During last year’s pandemic, the H1N1 Influenza A Virus made itself a bigger nuisance than a stadium full of vuvuzelas at a World Cup match, and so the rush began to figure out how to stop it in its tracks. In a new Journal of Virology paper, investigators have discovered that a handful of cellular […]
Worming Your Way to Longer Life Through Histone DemethylationJune 22, 2010Life’s tough when you’re a C. elegans worm. You hatch, you molt, you reproduce (usually with yourself), and then you die, all within 2–3 weeks. But a talented team of researchers at Stanford has found a way to keep worms wriggling long after they normally go to the great compost heap in the sky. Stanford’s […]
Fun, Sun and MethylationJune 8, 2010Summertime is here, and that means that we’ll all be spending more time outdoors and in the sun. But, while you are out there doing your best to get as tan as the cast of Baywatch, some new details about how age and sun exposure can change your skin’s DNA methylation patterns may make you […]
Unscrambling Nucleosome-DNA Methylation RelationsJune 7, 2010Like the age-old “chicken-or-the-egg” question, epigeneticists have wondered which comes first, nucleosome positioning or DNA methylation. One school of thought is that DNA must be unwrapped from nucleosomes to allow methyltransferase access before methylation can occur, but a new study in Nature suggests that this theory isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be. A […]
Memories Saved By DNA MethylationJune 7, 2010The connection between memory and epigenetics has been has been a hot topic over the last couple of years. A recent article in Nature Neuroscience adds a new wrinkle to the subject by showing that DNA methylation helps to save memories, in addition to creating them. Sort of like using the “Keep Until I Delete” […]