Latest Methylation Stories

Analysis reveals overlap between genetic and epigenetic risk maps of autism Scientists at the University of Massachusetts Medical School are the first to map epigenetic changes in neurons from the brains of individuals with autism, providing empirical evidence that epigenetic alterations—changes in gene expression caused by mechanisms other than changes in the underlying DNA sequence—may play an important role in the disease. Analysis of these variations revealed hundreds of genetic...

Neurons in the prefrontal cortex of individuals with autism show changes at numerous sites across the genome, according to a study being published Online First by the Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Autism spectrum disorders are a group of complex illnesses with different causes and origins. Neuronal dysfunction in the cerebral cortex and other regions of the brain could contribute to the cognitive and behavioral defects in autism, according to background...

Finding has implications for treatment of wide range of diseases Johns Hopkins scientists investigating chemical modifications across the genomes of adult mice have discovered that DNA modifications in non-dividing brain cells, thought to be inherently stable, instead underwent large-scale dynamic changes as a result of stimulated brain activity. Their report, in the October issue of Nature Neuroscience, has major implications for treating psychiatric diseases, neurodegenerative disorders,...

Scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) and the University of Southern California (USC) have uncovered intriguing new evidence helping to explain one of the ways in which a stem cell's fate can be determined. The new data show how the "marking" of DNA sequences by groups of methyl molecules – a process called methylation – can influence the type of cell a stem cell will become. The cellular maturation process, called differentiation, has long been thought to be affected by...

   When sperm meets egg, the chemical instructions that tag sperm cells must be erased so that human life can start anew. One way these instructions are erased is through demethylation, the removal of specific chemical tags or methyl groups that dot the underlying DNA of cells. Though scientists have known about this phenomenon for a decade, exactly how such "reprogramming" occurs has proved elusive. Now, a study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine...

ST. LOUIS, Sept. 21, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Orion Genomics, a leading developer of epigenetic-based diagnostics, announced today that QIAGEN, a leading global provider of sample and assay technologies, has non-exclusively licensed Orion's MethylScreen(TM) technology for research use in EpiTect(TM) Methyl qPCR Array System reagent kits. These kits are used in the epigenetics field to analyze the DNA methylation status of genes with quantitative PCR (qPCR). "QIAGEN's license validates the...

  Salk scientists discover 'hidden' code in DNA evolves more rapidly than genetic code A "hidden" code linked to the DNA of plants allows them to develop and pass down new biological traits far more rapidly than previously thought, according to the findings of a groundbreaking study by researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. The study, published Sept. 16 in the journal Science, provides the first evidence that an organism's "epigenetic" code - an extra layer of...

DNA/histone combination, a destination for cell signals, also talks to other proteins Chromatin - the intertwined histone proteins and DNA that make up chromosomes – constantly receives messages that pour in from a cell’s intricate signaling networks: Turn that gene on. Stifle that one. But chromatin also talks back, scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center report today in the journal Cell, issuing orders affecting a protein that has nothing to do with...

Medical researchers have discovered a new type of mechanism causing cancer susceptibility, showing that tiny changes in some anti-cancer genes can act as magnets to attract modifying "biochemical tags", effectively switching them off and predisposing families to an increased risk of the disease.The study and its findings are reported in the leading international journal Cancer Cell.The researchers, from the University of New South Wales (UNSW), believe a tiny spelling mistake involving a...

Mariusz A. Wasik, MD, professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, and Qian Zhang, MD, PhD, research assistant professor, both from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and their colleagues, found that a cancer-causing fusion protein works by silencing the tumor suppressor gene IL-2R common gamma-chain (IL-2Rγ). The results, which appeared in a recent Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest news targets for lymphoma and other types of...