Archive for February, 2007
Cell Reviews Epigenetics and Chromatin Organization
Monday, February 26th, 2007The journal Cell has released a special review issue, “Epigenetics and Chromatin Organization.” The issue contains 11 review articles, beginning with a review of one of the most exciting aspects of epigenetics: its effect on evolution.
According to classical evolutionary theory, phenotypic variation originates from random mutations that are independent of selective pressure. However, recent findings [...]
New Sponsor: Ion Channel Media
Tuesday, February 20th, 2007The latest sponsor of Epigenetics News is Ion Channel Media, who has purchased a text link across every page of the site for US$40. Ion Channel Media has a network of 43 science portals that provide feeds of the latest published research in a wide range of scientific disciplines, including bioinformatics, apoptosis, cell cycle, transgenics, [...]
Just Science Wrap-Up: Better Late Than Never
Tuesday, February 20th, 2007In my view, the Just Science week was a success. Yeah, we didn’t really meet the challenge. Mr. Rekow and I were able to cover a few epigenetics research articles, and then the inevitable hit: preparation for three exams. On the same day.
To be honest, I was impressed that Rekow and I were able to [...]
Unmethylated Promoter-Proximal Region Required for Transcription
Friday, February 16th, 2007A new paper published this week in PLoS Genetics provides evidence that an unmethylated region extending several hundred base pairs from the promoter of a gene is required for activation of transcription.
Genes, the functional units of heredity, are made up of DNA, which is packaged inside the nuclei of eukaryotic cells in association with a [...]
Optimizing Annealing Temperature in Bisulfite Methylation Analysis
Wednesday, February 7th, 2007Sodium bisulfite treatment of DNA is widely used by researchers to analyze the DNA methylation patterns of DNA regions of interest. With bisulfite treatment of DNA, researchers are able to quantitatively determine if a 5′ cytosine is methylated. If a cytosine (C) is methylated, bisulfite treatment will leave the cytosine untouched. If the cytosine is [...]
Histone Modifications Regulate Pluripotency in the Early Mouse Embryo
Tuesday, February 6th, 2007Earlier this year, a group affiliated with Cambridge University at the Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gordon Institute reported in Nature that epigenetics, specifically methylation of certain arginine residues of histone H3, directly contribute to cell fate and success in the four-cell stage embryo in the mouse model. These findings confront the widely accepted paradigm that [...]
Transgenerational Epigenetic Modification with Nutritional Supplementation
Monday, February 5th, 2007Reader Israel Barrantes recently commented on what he considered to be the “most memorable epigenetic moment of the year” for 2006, which was a groundbreaking paper by Cropley et al. that appeared in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science in November (1). I couldn’t argue with that nomination, so I decided to write about [...]
