News tagged with dna methylation

Epigenetic reprogramming: Research discovers how epigenetic information could be inherited

New research reveals a potential way for how parents' experiences could be passed to their offspring's genes. The research was published today, 25 January, in the journal Science.

Genetics created Jan 24, 2013 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (4) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

Possible role for Huntington's gene discovered

About 20 years ago, scientists discovered the gene that causes Huntington's disease, a fatal neurodegenerative disorder that affects about 30,000 Americans. The mutant form of the gene has many extra DNA ...

Genetics created Jan 16, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Methylome modifications offer new measure of our 'biological' age

Women live longer than men. Individuals can appear or feel years younger – or older – than their chronological age. Diseases can affect our aging process. When it comes to biology, our clocks clearly tick differently.

Medical research created Nov 21, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Epigenetic analysis of stomach cancer finds new disease subtypes

Researchers at the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore have identified numerous new subtypes of gastric cancer that are triggered by environmental factors.

Cancer created Oct 17, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Differences between human twins at birth highlight importance of intrauterine environment

Your genes determine much about you, but environment can have a strong influence on your genes even before birth, with consequences that can last a lifetime. In a study published online in Genome Research, researchers have f ...

Genetics created Jul 15, 2012 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (4) | comments 9 | with audio podcast

New technique could transform epigenetics research

(Medical Xpress) -- Collaboration between scientists at Cambridge University and the Babraham Institute have demonstrated a new technique that will significantly improve scientists' ability to perform epigenetics ...

Genetics created Apr 26, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Gene regulator in brain's executive hub tracked across lifespan

For the first time, scientists have tracked the activity, across the lifespan, of an environmentally responsive regulatory mechanism that turns genes on and off in the brain's executive hub. Among key findings ...

Autism spectrum disorders created Feb 02, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Inflammatory mediator promotes colorectal cancer by stifling protective genes

Chronic inflammation combines with DNA methylation, a process that shuts down cancer-fighting genes, to promote development of colorectal cancer, scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center report today ...

Inflammatory disorders created Jan 22, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Cancer cells' universal 'dark matter' exposed

Using the latest gene sequencing tools to examine so-called epigenetic influences on the DNA makeup of colon cancer, a Johns Hopkins team says its results suggest cancer treatment might eventually be more tolerable and successful ...

Cancer created Jun 26, 2011 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (8) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Hopkins team discovers how DNA changes

Using human kidney cells and brain tissue from adult mice, Johns Hopkins scientists have uncovered the sequence of steps that makes normally stable DNA undergo the crucial chemical changes implicated in cancers, psychiatric ...

Medical research created Apr 14, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Mapping the embryonic epigenome

A large, multi-institutional research team involved in the NIH Epigenome Roadmap Project has published a sweeping analysis in the current issue of the journal Cell of how genes are turned on and off to direct early human ...

Genetics created May 09, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Big data analysis identifies prognostic RNA markers in a common form of breast cancer

A Big Data analysis that integrates three large sets of genomic data available through The Cancer Genome Atlas has identified 37 RNA molecules that might predict survival in patients with the most common form of breast cancer.

Cancer created Apr 29, 2013 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Epigenetic changes shed light on biological mechanism of autism

Scientists from King's College London have identified patterns of epigenetic changes involved in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) by studying genetically identical twins who differ in autism traits. The study, published in ...

Autism spectrum disorders created Apr 23, 2013 | popularity 3 / 5 (1) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Deciphering the cellular reading system of DNA methylation

(Medical Xpress)—Scientists from the FMI identify how a family of proteins reads the methylation marks on the DNA so critical for cell development. These MBD proteins bind directly to methylation marks ...

Genetics created Apr 12, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

New insights into how genes turn on and off

Researchers at UC Davis and the University of British Columbia have shed new light on methylation, a critical process that helps control how genes are expressed. Working with placentas, the team discovered that 37 percent ...

Genetics created Mar 27, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

DNA methylation

DNA methylation is a type of chemical modification of DNA that can be inherited and subsequently removed without changing the original DNA sequence. As such, it is part of the epigenetic code and is also the best characterized epigenetic mechanism. Because methylation is a common capability of all viruses for self non-self identification, the epigenetic code could be a persistent remnant of ancient viral infection events.

DNA methylation involves the addition of a methyl group to DNA — for example, to the number 5 carbon of the cytosine pyrimidine ring — in this case with the specific effect of reducing gene expression. DNA methylation at the 5 position of cytosine has been found in every vertebrate examined. In adult somatic tissues, DNA methylation typically occurs in a CpG dinucleotide context; non-CpG methylation is prevalent in embryonic stem cells.

In plants, cytosines are methylated both symmetrically (CpG or CpNpG) and asymmetrically (CpNpNp), where N can be any nucleotide but guanine.

Research has suggested that long term memory storage in humans may be regulated by DNA methylation.

For more information about DNA methylation, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.