( New research from University of North C...)Protein helps regulate the genes of embryonic stem cells

New research from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill shows how a protein may be crucial to the regulation of genes in embryonic stem cells. The protein, called "eed," is needed for an essential chemical modification of many genes. Embryos cannot survive without the modification. The findings appear in the May 24 issue of the journal Current Biology.

The research offers an important contribution to a new wave of thinking in genetics: that not all human disease states are due to alterations in DNA sequence. Dr. Terry Magnuson - Sarah Graham Kenan professor, chairman of genetics and director of the Carolina Center for Genome Sciences in UNC's School of Medicine - led the research.

Researchers five decades ago worked to crack the genetic code, the nucleic acid sequence of As, Cs, Gs and Ts making up the DNA of genes. Today, Magnuson's team is trying to unravel a different, newly appreciated mode of inheritance: epigenetics.

"Epigenetic inheritance is heritable information passed down through generations of cells that is not encoded by the DNA sequence," said Nathan D. Montgomery, a graduate student in Magnuson's laboratory and first author of the paper.

This information is in the form of chemical modifications on any of four core histone proteins that group together to provide a molecular scaffold supporting the roughly 35,000 genes in the nucleus of every human cell. Histone modifications affect gene activity and include methylation, in which a methyl component is attached to the histone protein.

The prevailing model is that methylation on histones serves as a docking site for proteins that "read" this histone modification, and it's those proteins that directly have an impact on gene expression - either by activating or silencing a gene.

"Diversity is determined by different types of chemical modifications and also by the number of modifications," Montgomery said. "And those modifications are the unit of epigeneti
'"/>

Source:University of North Carolina School of Medicine

Page: 1 2
Related biology news :

1. Quantum Dots Research Leads to New Knowledge about Protein Binding in Plants
2. Protein discovery could unlock the secret to better TB treatment
3. Researchers Uncover Key Step In Manufacture of Memory Protein
4. An HIV Protein Plays a Surprising Role in Gene Activation
5. Protein Packages Found To Activate Genes; May Be What Regulates Development And Disease
6. New SARS Protein Linked To Important Cell Doorway
7. The Shapes Of Life: NIGMS Project Yields More Than 1,000 Protein Structures
8. PANTHER Protein Classification System Database 5.0
9. Duke Chemists Isolating Individual Molecules Of Toxic Protein In Alzheimers, Parkinsons Disease
10. Newly Discovered Compound Blocks Known Cancer-Causing Protein
11. UF Researchers Map Bacterial Proteins That Cause Tooth Loss