Published in Epigenetics & Chromatin
BackgroundThe Plasmodium sexual gametocyte stages are the only transmissible form of the malaria parasite and are thus responsible for the continued transmission of the disease. Gametocytes undergo extensive functional and morphological changes from commitment to maturity, directed by an equally extensive control program. However, the processes tha...
Published in Epigenetics & Chromatin
BackgroundMaternal protein restriction diet (PRD) increases the risk of metabolic dysfunction in adulthood, the mechanisms during the early life of offspring are still poorly understood. Apart from genetic factors, epigenetic mechanisms are crucial to offer phenotypic plasticity in response to environmental situations and transmission. Enhancer-ass...
Published in Epigenetics & Chromatin
BackgroundEnvironmental factors, such as oxidative stress, have the potential to modify the epigenetic landscape of cells. We have previously shown that DNA methyltransferase (DNMT) activity can be inhibited by sublethal doses of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). However, site-specific changes in DNA methylation and the reversibility of any changes have no...
Published in Epigenetics & Chromatin
BackgroundPita is required for Drosophila development and binds specifically to a long motif in active promoters and insulators. Pita belongs to the Drosophila family of zinc-finger architectural proteins, which also includes Su(Hw) and the conserved among higher eukaryotes CTCF. The architectural proteins maintain the active state of regulatory el...
Published in Epigenetics & Chromatin
BackgroundThe Hi-C technique is widely employed to study the 3-dimensional chromatin architecture and to assemble genomes. The conventional in situ Hi-C protocol employs restriction enzymes to digest chromatin, which results in nonuniform genomic coverage. Using sequence-agnostic restriction enzymes, such as DNAse I, could help to overcome this lim...
Published in Epigenetics & Chromatin
Epigenetic marks do not change the sequence of DNA but affect gene expression in a cell-type specific manner by altering the activities of regulatory elements. Development of new molecular biology assays, sequencing technologies, and computational approaches enables us to profile the human epigenome in three-dimensional structure genome-wide. Here ...
Published in Epigenetics & Chromatin
BackgroundDown syndrome (DS) is characterized by a genome-wide profile of differential DNA methylation that is skewed towards hypermethylation in most tissues, including brain, and includes pan-tissue differential methylation. The molecular mechanisms involve the overexpression of genes related to DNA methylation on chromosome 21. Here, we stably o...
Published in Epigenetics & Chromatin
Background X-chromosome inactivation (XCI) in eutherian mammals is the epigenetic inactivation of one of the two X chromosomes in XX females in order to compensate for dosage differences with XY males. Not all genes are inactivated, and the proportion escaping from inactivation varies between human and mouse (the two species that have been extensiv...
Published in Epigenetics & Chromatin
In the developing vertebrate retina, retinal progenitor cells (RPCs) proliferate and give rise to terminally differentiated neurons with exquisite spatio-temporal precision. Lineage commitment, fate determination and terminal differentiation are controlled by intricate crosstalk between the genome and epigenome. Indeed, epigenetic regulation plays ...
Published in Epigenetics & Chromatin
Histone crotonylation is a recently described post-translational modification that occurs at multiple identified histone lysine crotonylation sites. An increasing number of studies have demonstrated that histone crotonylation at DNA regulatory elements plays an important role in the activation of gene transcription. However, among others, we have s...
