mRNA Shows Its Age and Quiets Down the Immune System with Cap2 MethylationFebruary 14, 2023Wrinkles, gray hair, … Cap2 methylation on mRNA? It turns out that these are all signs of aging. Two elegant new methods to show that Cap1 gets slowly modified to Cap2 as mRNAs age. And just like boomers, they want to live the quiet life, calming down the innate immune system to prevent autoimmunity. Although […]
RT&Tag Maps the Fleeting World of Chromatin-associated RNAsOctober 25, 2022Between the vast lands of DNA and proteins lies the ephemeral and dynamic world of chromatin-associated RNAs, a less-explored but utterly critical domain of the eukaryotic nucleus. Thankfully, RNA-focused researchers can now turn to a tagmentation-based profiling technique (“RT&Tag”) to map the landscape of regulatory chromatin-associated RNAs to aid this quest. In their fascinating study, […]
Like a RedChIP to a Bull! – New Technique Explores RNA-Protein-DNA InteractionsJanuary 30, 2022The publication of a new technique is like waving a red rag to a bull for many in the epigenetics arena. Now, “RedChIP” has us stampeding in anticipation towards the exploration of the complex interactions taking place between RNA, DNA, and proteins in the nucleus. Olé! Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) interact with proteins and DNA to […]
A Circulating microRNA Makes a Macro Difference in the Battle Against COVID-19November 28, 2021From holding the door open to passing on a link to an exciting epigenetics paper – small gestures can make an enormous difference to anyone’s day! Now, an exciting new study suggests that the expression of a microRNA has a macro impact during SARS-CoV-2 infection and could represent an important target for the treatment of […]
Transgenerational Epigenetic Inheritance of Horizontally-transferred Memories Goes ViralOctober 4, 2021While research into the transgenerational epigenetic inheritance went viral long ago, a new “social media” platform powered by horizontal transfer has taken “going viral” a bit too literally. In their retweetable new article, researchers from the lab of Coleen T. Murphy (Princeton University, New Jersey) now demonstrate that virus-like particles (VLPs) support horizontally-transferred memories and […]
The Intergenerational Effect of Paternal Stress: circRNAs Join the Blame GameAugust 23, 2021Although we’ve known for a while that paternal stress can lead to problems down the road for their offspring thanks to DNA methylation and histone modifications, non-coding RNAs have now come full circRNA. In their latest, a talented team from the lab of Eric Miska (University of Cambridge, UK) decided to find out which RNA […]
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 […]
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 […]
Sperm Throw “Three-pointers” to Ensure Transgenerational Epigenetic InheritanceJanuary 26, 2021In the game of transgenerational epigenetic inheritance, many labs have been searching for a slam dunk. Now, in a game-changing new article, ballers from the laboratory of Michael K. Skinner (Washington State University, Pullman, WA, USA) provide a play-by-play of how teamwork between non-coding RNA expression, DNA methylation, and histone modifications allows rat sperm to […]
C.elegans Studies Worm into the Fundamentals of Transgenerational Epigenetic InheritanceSeptember 21, 2020While a “bird’s-eye view” of a topic can often provide colossal insight, the opposite perspective can sometimes be just as useful! Recently, two fascinating studies of transgenerational epigenetic inheritance have taken a “worm’s-eye view” of this research area to deepen our understanding of this complex mechanism in the model nematode worm C. elegans. C. elegans […]
