histone

Man and mouse share genome structures

...matin is composed of DNA spooled around bundles of histone proteins, and resembles a chain of beads which is ...st exciting to Bernstein is the unusual density of histone tags spread over the regions of genome containing the HOX genes, which are key regulators of develop...

Novel Enzyme Shows Potential As An Anti-HIV Target

... Another, more widely accepted model proposes that histone acetylation controls transcription by recruiting cofactors required for transcription. Acetylation and deacetylation enzymes can also target other proteins. Of the three classes of deacetylases known to modify human histones, the sirtuins (SIRT1?) a...

Enzyme shown to help protect genomic stability

...ils of DNA around the histones are loosened or the histone molecules are altered, the genes become available for expression. It is the complex activity governing this process to which Ubp10 contributes. Enzymatic modifications to histones control DNA activation or silencing through the addition or removal o...

Protein helps regulate the genes of embryonic stem cells

...form of chemical modifications on any of four core histone proteins that group together to provide a molecula...on, 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...

UCR chemist part of team identifying new areas of gene regulation

...the current team, discovered in 1991 that sites of histone acetylation, a modification of the protein, play a...ometry to show that acetylation at the core of the histone is associated with gene activation by attracting the protein string known as the SWI/SNI chromatin r...

NYU chemists use computer simulation to enhance understanding of DNA transcription

... chromatin--a chromosome's substance consisting of histone proteins and DNA--exhibits salt-dependent conformations. Specifically, chains of nucleosomes, the building blocks of chromatin that appear as bead-like structures along DNA, fold into a condensed fiber as salt increases. This folding and the interpla...

Scientists unpick genetics of first 15 minutes of life

... swapping the type of 'packing material', known as histone proteins, it contains. When it arrives at the egg...perm DNA needs to be re-packaged with a new set of histone proteins so that the sperm DNA can engage in normal cellular activities. The result is called the ma...

Novel enzyme offers new look at gene regulation

...alled JHDM1A is able to remove a methyl group from histone H3, one of four histone proteins bound to all genes. Until just last year, the addition of a methyl group to a histone had b...

New mechanism for essential genome-wide gene silencing identified

...erplay between the addition of a SUMO protein to a histone ?sumoylation ?and the addition of either an acetyl group or a ubiquitin protein to a histone. The processes appear to be mutually exclusive. "Acetylation and ubiquitylation have both been shown in earlier studies to activate gene expression," says K...

Researchers uncover new mechanism of tumor suppressor

...o cancer. The first study, Molecular mechanism of histone H3K4me3 recognition by plant homeodomain of ING2, ...will appear in Nature titled ING2 PHD domain links histone H3 lysine 4 methylation to active gene repression. "Our findings have established the mechanistic p...

Pathway toward gene silencing described in plants

...rollably are often silenced by DNA methylation and histone (proteins that wrap DNA) modifications in cancer cells, contributing to tumor growth. And certain blood disorders resulting from defective genes expressed in adults might be alleviated if versions of those same genes that are only expressed very earl...

Activation of microRNA inhibits cancer gene in human cancer cells

...y for treating human cancers. DNA methylation and histone deacetylation are epigenetic processes involved in...ell growth. Drugs that inhibit DNA methylation and histone deacetylation, known as chromatin-modifying drugs, can reactivate genes that have been abnormally si...

University of Minnesota researchers take new look at cellular suicide

... just for packaging DNA," said Dong, who studied a histone named H2AX. "People believe H2AX plays a role in D...n't be repaired, the cell undergoes apoptosis. The histone H2AX is probably important for both apoptosis and DNA repair." Dong and his colleagues were led to ...

'Smart' genetic therapy helps the body to heal itself

... the mouse. "Knowing that a class of drug called histone deacetilase (HDAC) inhibitors was able to stimulate the expression of ALDR in the mouse and in human cell lines, we became interested by the work of Professor Wirth's laboratory on valproate, which belongs to the HDAC class and enters the brain ", sa...

Researchers find protein that silences genes

...his collaborators found that one of many predicted histone deacetylases in Arabidopsis, HDA6 is a key player in both histone deacetylation and DNA methylation of ribosomal RNA genes. Both types of modification are studied as...

New path from estrogen to survival in breast cancer cells described

...ong life span in several other species. SITR1 is a histone deacetylase, a protein that blocks transcription factors from regulating genes. "When NEDD8 modified BCA3, it binds to p65 and recruits SITR1 to suppress NFkB-mediated transcription," Yeh said. Finally, the researchers discovered that estrogen bloc...

Experimental cancer drugs counter muscle deterioration seen in muscular dystrophy

... light on the potential use of these drugs, called histone deacetylase inhibitors, in promoting regeneration and repair of dystrophic muscles, thereby countering the progression of the disease, in two different mouse models of muscular dystrophy. Led by Burnham Institute assistant professor Lorenzo Puri, M.D...

Regulating the nuclear architecture of the cell

... Su(var)3-9 proteins attach methyl groups to the histone labeled H3 at its ninth amino acid residue, which is a lysine. In the histone code the methylation target is known as H3K9, where K stands for lysine. Methylation of chromatin ca...

Linking DNA and histone methylation

...e study provides a new direction to understand how histone and DNA methylation, two phenomena that play a sig... each other to turn genes off. " Although both histone and DNA methylation have long been recognized as hallmarks of euchromatic gene silencing, how these ...

Scientists reveal structure of gateways to gene control

...ones in the yeast DNA that contain in their core a histone protein called H2A.Z. Led by Pugh and Stephan Schuster, associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, the Penn State research team then used antibodies that bind only to this H2A.Z protein as a tool for separating all these promoter nuc...

Liposuctioned fat stem cells to repair bodies

... chemical modifications of DNA and its surrounding histone proteins. Epigenetic marks contribute to switching genes on and off, and stem cells rely on them heavily as they divide and mature. The Oslo team has found that low rates of DNA methylation, for instance, boost the chances of transforming fat stem ce...

Massey researchers induce cell death in leukemia

... in human CLL cells. Romidepsin and belinostat are histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors. "To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report describing synergistic interactions between HDAC inhibitors and Bortezomib combinations in the setting of CLL," said Grant. "The findings of our study -- as we...

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

...is determined by the level of a methylated form of histone H3, one of the basic proteins around which DNA is ...hat the higher the levels of this modified form of histone H3, the more predisposed the mammalian embryonic cells were to develop the qualities of inner embryo...

Synthetic peptide targets latent papilloma virus infections

...onto a cellular protein that, in turn, attaches to histone proteins that envelop the chromosome, tethering the plasmid to the chromosomes. The new research by Botchan and his colleagues shows that HPV works the same way. The UC Berkeley team created a short peptide that binds to E2 in hopes that this synth...

Beyond the DNA: Chemical signatures reveal genetic switches in the genome

...at identify enhancers. The elucidation of a common histone modification signature will enable scientists to quickly identify enhancers and promoters for a gene, which will lead in turn to rapid identification of factors that control its expression." This method might also be used to identify the disruptions ...

Revealing the machinery underlying the 'plastic' juvenile brain

...g proteins. As a test to determine whether such histone modification functionally affected plasticity, the...e in the ability of visual experience to drive the histone modifications that are necessary for neural rewiring. The researchers concluded that the mechanis...

Salk scientists hammer out a pathway that promotes muscle cell survival in mice

...heir muscle cells also had a genetic brake, called histone deacetylase (HDAC), stuck in place. Without loosening the brake by a chemical modification process known as phosphorylation, muscle-specific genes could not be activated and the mice lacked proper muscle function. In order to determine how CREB a...

U-M researchers discover gene switched off in cancer can be turned on

...n turned off. Knowing that a class of drugs called histone deacetylase inhibitors, or HDAC inhibitors, can affect gene expression, the researchers applied these drugs to the cells and found the BRM expression could be restored – like flipping the switch back on. While the existing HDAC inhibitors did retu...