epigenetic

It's not all genetic: Common epigenetic problem doubles cancer risk in mice

...e mice and in some people, however, cells lack the epigenetic "marks" that sit on the DNA and keep the maternall...gression. "Most researchers, including me, expect epigenetic differences to influence progression -- whether a tumor would grow slowly or quickly, or whether it ...

Protein helps regulate the genes of embryonic stem cells

...ery said. "And those modifications are the unit of epigenetic information, just as the DNA sequence is the unit of genetic information." Depending on the precise nature of the histone modification, any given gene associated with modified histones is marked to be turned on or off. In the study, eed is the first...

Identical twins may have more differences than meet the eye

...tary habits and environmental factors may all have epigenetic affects. Most epigenetic changes are normal and may explain why pairs of twins lose some of their identical attributes as the...

Scientists find evidence of catastrophic sand avalanches, sea level changes in Gulf of Mexico

...tary habits and environmental factors may all have epigenetic affects. Most epigenetic changes are normal and may explain why pairs of twins lose some of their identical attributes as the...

Building a better mouse model of lung cancer: FHIT counts

...that reflected the timing and order of genetic and epigenetic changes in the human experience of this disease." Huebner and colleagues at Ohio State and Thomas Jefferson University bred two strains of mice, one that had only one copy of the FHIT gene, and another that lacked both copies. They also established ...

Embryonic stem cells accrue genetic changes

...cell to cell during cell division. These so-called epigenetic marks -- in this case methyl groups on a gene region known as the promoter -- help control whether a gene is used by a cell to make proteins. The researchers determined the methylation status of 14 genes in each of the batches of stem cells; three of...

New view of cancer: 'Epigenetic' changes come before mutations

... in the development of cancers, but there also are epigenetic changes and those come first," says lead author An...uman Disease at Johns Hopkins. Cells affected by epigenetic changes look normal under a microscope at low levels of resolution, Feinberg says, "but if you look ...

Forgotten by evolution?

...wn after the scientists performed what is known as epigenetic reprogramming (epigenetic reprogramming is a synonym for heritable modifications of the DNA others than alterations of the base sequence like DNA-methylation and changes of the chromatin). In the differentiation toward skeleton musculature, the scie...

Researchers unlock how cells determine their functions

...thorax. The paper explains how proteins, known as epigenetic activators (such as Ash1 from the fruit fly Drosop...cell will have in the body. "The fact that these epigenetic activators, such as Ash1, turn on the expression of specific target genes has been known for some ti...

Cancer cells suppress large regions of DNA by a reversible process that can be tackled

... 'epigenetics'. DNA methylation is one of the main epigenetic processes. In cancer, the DNA methylation pattern of many genes changes. However, until now, it was believed that only individual single genes were silenced by methylation. But this is not necessarily the case. "What we've found is that non-methylat...

Novel molecular 'signature' marks DNA of embryonic stem cells

...st cellular ancestors, leaving the question of how epigenetic history first begins. The scientists found that bi...ay originate from the DNA itself. "How the initial epigenetic state is established and then altered during development has implications not only for stem cell bio...

Malignant melanoma cells secrete protein required for embryo formation

...tal factors as well as influencing other cells via epigenetic (other than genetic) mechanisms, a quality known a...e developing zebrafish as a model for studying the epigenetic modulation of tumor cells. Melanoma is one of the deadliest forms of cancer. The five-year surviva...

In a technical tour de force, Salk scientists take a global view of the epigenome

...entifying not only what genes they encode, but how epigenetic modifications switch genes off and on. Once that's achieved, the effort will be scaled up to learn more about the dynamics of the whole human genome. The approach developed by Ecker and collaborators may allow researchers to do just that. "We fit t...

Pathway toward gene silencing described in plants

...in a pathway that brings about DNA methylation, an epigenetic function that involves a chemical modification of cytosine, one of the four chemical subunits of DNA. Without proper DNA methylation, higher organisms from plants to humans have a host of developmental problems, from dwarfing in plants to certain tum...

Researcher gives hard thoughts on soft inheritance

...alternative packaging of the DNA. These so-called epigenetic modifications are known to be important for turnin...w there is a mechanism to do soft inheritance, and epigenetic inheritance can be construed as a form soft inheritance. That's all I'm saying. The really heretica...

Activation of microRNA inhibits cancer gene in human cancer cells

...rs. DNA methylation and histone deacetylation are epigenetic processes involved in the regulation of gene expre...agues examined whether miRNAs can be controlled by epigenetic alterations linked to chromatin remodeling. Cancer cells and normal cells were treated with chromati...

Researchers find protein that silences genes

...e expression. In plants, as well as animals, some epigenetic traits are stable and can be inherited when a cell divides or even into the next generation. Pikaard explains that understanding how some genes are selectively silenced and how silenced alleles can be turned on again may someday have practical benef...

Inheritance outside DNA

...of stem cells. Genomic imprinting is a type of epigenetic change that causes one copy of a particular gene t...e cause-and-effect relationship between cancer and epigenetic alterations has been difficult to pin down, says Andrew Feinberg of the John Hopkins School of Medic...

Linking DNA and histone methylation

... colleagues lend new insight into the mechanism of epigenetic silencing of euchromatic genes. Dr. Carey emphasizes that "The study provides a new direction to understand how histone and DNA methylation, two phenomena that play a significant role in stem cell differentiation and cancer, can communicate with ea...

Liposuctioned fat stem cells to repair bodies

...e hurdle lies not with the genes but with a cell’s epigenetic status, the subtle chemical modifications of DNA a...from one cell type into another. "Look at a cell’s epigenetic profile," says Collas, "and you may be able to predict what that cell is likely to turn into." T...

Genes and biomarkers that allow doctors to choose the right therapy for the right patient

Genetic and epigenetic variations ensure that no two people are exactly a...erences in the spectrum of genetic, biological and epigenetic characteristics between breast cancers, although some recurrent abnormality patterns are emerging th...

Scientists discover stage at which an embryonic cell is fated to become a stem cell

...erties. Thus, their results show that manipulating epigenetic information in this protein in early mouse embryos can influence cell fate determination ...

Turn-ons and turn-offs for neurons

...overning gene regulation in the brain. Indeed, the epigenetic mechanisms in charge of switching genes “on” or “off” play an essential role when our brain learns and stores information, and when our brain reacts to injury and disease. ...

Exploring the dark matter of the genome

...dentifying the proteins and components involved in epigenetic inheritance, as well as other mysteries surrounding the genome's "dark matter." "Sequence finishing and mapping of Drosophila melanogaster heterochromatin," by Roger A. Hoskins, Joseph W. Carlson, Cameron Kennedy, David Acevedo, Martha Evans-Ho...

Researchers discover inherited mutation for leukemia

...w that it's important to look for both genetic and epigenetic alterations when identifying problem genes," he says. CLL is the most common form of adult leukemia, with 15,300 new cases and 4,500 deaths from the disease expected this year in the United States. The leukemia is slightly more common in men than...