PANDORA-seq Opens a Pandora’s Box of sncRNAsMay 2, 2021The opening of Pandora’s box is said to have cursed the ancient Greek world with sickness, death, and innumerable other evils. Thankfully, a modern-day technique called “PANDORA-seq” brings forth new hope for removing these ancient afflictions on our epigenomes by identifying previously undetectable small non-coding RNAs (sncRNAs). A hopeful handful of researchers led by Qi […]
DNA Methylation Signature Defines a Second Neurodevelopmental Disorder Associated with SRCAPApril 27, 2021Sometimes the only way to tell who’s who is with their signatures. It turns out that epigenetic signatures can tell one disorder from another, and even help find new ones. Chromatin remodelers play important roles in neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs). Pathogenic genetic variants in many of these genes cause specific NDDs. These are often associated with […]
QSER1 Teams up with TET to Protect the Developmental Secrets of DNA Methylation ValleysApril 23, 2021Believers in the Sasquatch say deep mountain valleys are where they may be hiding. When it comes to our genomes, DNA methylation valleys hold secrets yet to be discovered too. How DNA methylation is coordinated at multiple CpGs sites across regulatory regions in early development is still poorly understood. Bivalent promoters are one system used […]
Meet the Escape Artists of X-Chromosome InactivationApril 22, 2021While an escape from the zoo sounds newsworthy on its own, the addition of X-chromosome inactivation (XCI) makes it irresistible for our news crew. An exciting new epigenetic effort has captured the exceptional XCI escape artists across eutherian mammals. XCI is a dosage compensation mechanism in females that results in the inactivation of one of […]
Removing R-loops Regulates Repression: Revealing the Role of LSD1April 19, 2021Epigenetic regulatory cascades can be complex affairs…to say the least. Thankfully, a recent chromatin effector coregulator-based study now keeps us firmly in the loop by revealing how a histone demethylase induces gene repression by triggering a regulatory cascade that removes RNA:DNA hybrid structures known as R-loops! A talented team led by Philipp Rathert (University of […]
Methylation’s Moonlighting Mysteries: DNMT3L’s Divergent Roles in Down SyndromeApril 12, 2021By daylight, DNA methyltransferase 3L (DNMT3L) takes on the modest role of a catalytically inactive but stimulatory binding partner for its more popular methyltransferase siblings (DNMT3A and DNMT3B). But, when the sun goes down, DNMT3L gives new meaning to protein moonlighting. DNMT3L is located on chromosome 21, which has made it a prime candidate for the Down syndrome […]
A “Batty” New Epigenetic Clock Provides Clues About Healthy AgingApril 8, 2021Are you cuckoo for clocks, dotty for DNA methylation, and avid about aging? Well, a “batty” new study of epigenetic aging in certain long-lived winged mammals has just added to the zoo of clues about epigenetic age by providing a bat epigenetic clock. Specifically, an ardent team of researchers led by the levels heads of […]
The Solution to Stop Stress Susceptibility: Spiny Neuron Histone H3K79me2 ModificationsMarch 29, 2021Many of us dream of a quick fix to being so stressed all the time, and now that reality may not be so far off thanks to the identification of a histone modification behind the life-long effects of early-life stress (ELS). The nucleus accumbens is a brain region important for dopamine signaling and reward behavior. […]
AtacWorks: Deep Learning Levels Up ATAC-seq with Graphics Processing UnitsMarch 19, 2021It turns out that those graphics cards in our computers aren’t just great for gaming, they can also push your epigenomic research to the next level. When industry meets academia, we can all win and thanks to an exciting collaboration between the graphics processing unit (GPU) inventors at NVIDIA and the lab of ATAC-seq inventor […]
The Epitranscriptomic Results Are In: To Be Queen Bee, First Eat the Royal JellyMarch 19, 2021It must be jelly, royal jelly. Giving new meaning to the adage “you are what you eat”, exciting epitranscriptomic findings have us buzzing about how diet influences larval development and royal status in honeybees. In a process known as caste differentiation, female honeybees fed different diets become either sterile workers or fertile queens. These bees […]