RNAi Rescues DNA Methylation DefectsMarch 25, 2009Nowadays it seems like “interference” carries such negative connotations. RNAs aren’t really big meddlers. In fact, it’s RNAi that’s protecting genomes against the transgenerational loss of DNA methylation. A team of researchers in France and Spain has demonstrated that in Arabidopsis, the RNA interference (RNAi) machinery can remethylate target sequences that were hypomethylated by mutation […]
miR-101: RNA Guardian Of The Genome?March 9, 2009MicroRNA-101 (miR-101) is rapidly earning a place in the “Who’s Who” of tumor suppressor genes. In November, we told you how The Little RNA that Could wallops prostate cancer by repressing the histone methyltransferase EZH2. Now researchers at the University of Southern California have shown that miR-101 plays a similar role in the suppression of […]
Two Epigenetic Drugs Join Forces with Cisplatin to Knock Out CancerMarch 9, 2009Just when it seems that scientists are winning the fight against cancer, tumors hit below the belt by developing resistance to chemotherapies. But researchers at the University of Glasgow and TopoTarget Prolifix Ltd. have shown that delivering a 1-2 punch of epigenetic drugs could allow the chemotherapeutic agent cisplatin to knock out resistant tumors. Cisplatin, […]
ESC Pluripotency Players Take To RESTMarch 2, 2009The lab gloves came off in a recent Nature exchange on the putative role of the transcriptional repressor, REST, in embryonic stem cell pluripotency. In the left corner, Singh and colleagues, conducting experiments out of MD Anderson in the Lone Star State, published data in Nature back in May, 2008 indicating that REST may control […]
miRNA Regulation Checks and Balances in Organ AdhesionFebruary 23, 2009We’re all asking ourselves these days, “But who regulates the regulators?” For miRNA, the answer may just be a consortium of genes both living and dead. A group of Toronto researchers exogenously expressed versican 3’UTR (a potential target for miR-199a*) hooked up to a reporter construct. While expression of the luciferase or GFP reporter was […]
HITS-CLIP Cracks The FOX2 Splicing CodeFebruary 23, 2009As crafty as its animal namesake, the cell-type-specific RNA splicing regulator FOX2 slips in and out of the transcriptome, causing the inclusion of one exon here or the exclusion of another there, with no apparent rhyme or reason. However, researchers at the Salk Institute and the University of California, San Diego recently outsmarted FOX2 by […]
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 […]