News tagged with dna methylation
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 ...
Feb 02, 2012 |
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research shows health inequalities imprinted on DNA
(Medical Xpress) -- New research from the University of Glasgow shows that the health of the city’s most deprived residents could be impaired before they are even born.
Jan 24, 2012 |
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How protein networks stabilize muscle fibers: Same mechanism as for DNA
The same mechanism that stabilises the DNA in the cell nucleus is also important for the structure and function of vertebrate muscle cells. This has been established by RUB-researchers led by Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Linke (Institute ...
Jan 23, 2012 |
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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 ...
Jan 22, 2012 |
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Orphaned children exhibit genetic changes that require nurturing parents
Children who experience the stress of separation at birth from biological parents and are brought up in orphanages undergo biological consequences such as changes in their genome functioning, Yale School of ...
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
Dec 05, 2011 |
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Environment and diet leave their prints on the heart
A University of Cambridge study, which set out to investigate DNA methylation in the human heart and the 'missing link' between our lifestyle and our health, has now mapped the link in detail across the entire human genome.
Nov 29, 2011 |
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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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Controlling patterns of DNA methylation
A study performed by scientists in Dirk Schübeler's team at the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research in Basel identifies DNA sequences that autonomously determine DNA methylation patterns. ...
Oct 28, 2011 |
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Mushroom compound appears to improve effectiveness of cancer drugs
A compound isolated from a wild, poisonous mushroom growing in a Southwest China forest appears to help a cancer killing drug fulfill its promise, researchers report.
Oct 11, 2011 |
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Unraveling genomic changes in the brain
Scientists have known for some time that individual organisms are far more than the sum of their gene sequences. So-called epigenetic variations encompass a diverse array of chemical modifications to DNA that ...
Aug 08, 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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Scientists complete first mapping of molecule found in human embryonic stem cells
Stem cell researchers at UCLA have generated the first genome-wide mapping of a DNA modification called 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) in embryonic stem cells, and discovered that it is predominantly found in genes that are ...
Jul 21, 2011 |
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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 ...
Jun 26, 2011 |
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Mechanism for stress-induced epigenetic inheritance uncovered in new study
Researchers at RIKEN have uncovered a mechanism by which the effects of stress in the fly species Drosophila are inherited epigenetically over many generations through changes to the structure of chromatin, ...
Jun 23, 2011 |
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Mechanism discovered for health benefit of green tea, new approach to autoimmune disease
One of the beneficial compounds found in green tea has a powerful ability to increase the number of "regulatory T cells" that play a key role in immune function and suppression of autoimmune disease, according to new research ...
Jun 02, 2011 |
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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.
