News tagged with dna methylation
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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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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Nanofluidics sorts DNA for cancer research
(Phys.org) -- Cornell nanotechnology researchers have devised a new tool to study epigenetic changes in DNA that can cause cancer and other diseases: a nanoscale fluidic device that sorts and collects DNA, ...
Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine
May 24, 2012 |
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Biologists offer clearer picture of how protein machine systems tweak gene expression
Indiana University biologists have found that specific types of RNA polymerase enzymes, the molecular machines that convert DNA into RNA, can differ in function based on variation in the parts -- in this case ...
Mar 01, 2012 |
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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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Speeding up evolution: Orchid epigenetics
Organisms adapt to their dynamic environment using various strategies. Ovidiu Paun, working at the Department of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, investigates how marsh orchids adjust to and diffuse in ...
Jul 28, 2011 |
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New labeling method expands ability to read DNA modification
Researchers at Emory University School of Medicine and the University of Chicago have developed a method for labeling and mapping a "sixth nucleotide," whose biological role scientists are only beginning to explore.
Dec 13, 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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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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Scientists find genes related to body mass
Johns Hopkins scientists who specialize in unconventional hunts for genetic information outside nuclear DNA sequences have bagged a weighty quarry — 13 genes linked to human body mass. The experiments screened the so-called ...
Sep 15, 2010 |
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Scientists map epigenetic changes during blood cell differentiation
Having charted the occurrence of a common chemical change that takes place while stem cells decide their fates and progress from precursor to progeny, a Johns Hopkins-led team of scientists has produced the first-ever epigenetic ...
Aug 16, 2010 |
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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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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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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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Nanofluidics Identify Epigenetic Changes One Molecule at a Time
(PhysOrg.com) -- Using a system of nanofluidic channels and multicolor fluorescence microscopy, a team of investigators at Cornell University has developed a method that analyzes the binding of DNA and DNA-binding proteins ...
Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine
Mar 30, 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.
