News tagged with dna methylation
Graduate student finds a 'start/stop switch' for retroviruses
A University of British Columbia doctoral candidate has discovered a previously unknown mechanism for silencing retroviruses, segments of genetic material that can lead to fatal mutations in a cell's DNA.
Medicine & Health / Medical research
Apr 08, 2010 |
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Colon cancer shuts down receptor that could shut it down
Though a high-fiber diet has long been considered good for you and beneficial in staving off colon cancer, Medical College of Georgia researchers have discovered a reason why: roughage activates a receptor ...
Apr 13, 2009 |
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Researchers suspend, image single DNA molecules
(PhysOrg.com) -- Studying chemical modifications in the chromosomes of cells is akin to searching for changes in coiled spaghetti. Scientists at Cornell have figured out how to stretch out tangled strands ...
Chemistry / Analytical Chemistry
Oct 31, 2011 |
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Study reveals cancer-linked epigenetic effects of smoking
For the first time, UK scientists have reported direct evidence that taking up smoking results in epigenetic changes associated with the development of cancer.
Oct 09, 2010 |
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Bees reveal nature-nuture secrets
The nature-nurture debate is a "giant step" closer to being resolved after scientists studying bees documented how environmental inputs can modify our genetic hardware. The researchers uncovered extensive ...
Nov 02, 2010 |
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New nucleotide could revolutionize epigenetics
Anyone who studied a little genetics in high school has heard of adenine, thymine, guanine and cytosine - the A,T,G and C that make up the DNA code. But those are not the whole story. The rise of epigenetics in the past decade ...
Apr 16, 2009 |
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New Method Gives Regenerative Medicine a Boost
(PhysOrg.com) -- Bioengineers at UC San Diego have developed a breakthrough method for sequencing-based methylation profiling, which could help fuel personalized regenerative medicine and even lead to more ...
Apr 22, 2009 |
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What it might take to unravel the 'lean mean machine' that is cancer
Scientists from Sydney's Garvan Institute of Medical Research have published a paper, online today in Nature Cell Biology, describing gene expression in a prostate cancer cell: more sweeping, more targeted and more comple ...
Feb 23, 2010 |
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New clue in leukemia mystery: Researchers identify 'poison' employed by deadly enzyme mutations
There is new hope for people with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), a fast-growing cancer of the blood and bone marrow. Research led by Weill Cornell Medical College and published today in the online edition of the journal ...
Dec 03, 2010 |
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Stem cell researchers uncover previously unknown patterns in DNA methylation
A previously unknown pattern in DNA methylation - an event that affects cell function by altering gene expression - has been uncovered for the first time by stem cell researchers at UCLA, a finding that could have implications ...
Jun 02, 2010 |
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DNA repair protein caught in act of molecular theft
Scientists have observed, for the first time, an intermediate stage in the chemical process that repairs DNA methylation damage and regulates many important biological functions that impact health conditions ...
Nov 10, 2010 |
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Researchers Discover How Folate Promotes Healing In Spinal Cord Injuries
(PhysOrg.com) -- The vitamin folate appears to promote healing in damaged rat spinal cord tissue by triggering a change in DNA, according to a laboratory study funded by the National Institutes of Health.
Medicine & Health / Medical research
Jun 24, 2010 |
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Gene switch sites found mainly on 'shores,' not just 'islands' of the human genome
Scientists who study how human chemistry can permanently turn off genes have typically focused on small islands of DNA believed to contain most of the chemical alterations involved in those switches. But after an epic tour ...
Jan 18, 2009 |
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Scientists identify key factor that controls HIV latency
Scientists at the Gladstone Institutes of Virology and Immunology (GIVI) have found another clue that may lead to eradication of HIV from infected patients who have been on antiretroviral therapy. A real cure for HIV has ...
Medicine & Health / HIV & AIDS
Jun 26, 2009 |
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Gene related to aging plays role in stem cell differentiation
A gene shown to play a role in the aging process appears to play a role in the regulation of the differentiation of embryonic stem cells, according to researchers from the Center for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine ...
Jun 04, 2010 |
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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.
