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Related Concept Videos

Epigenetic Regulation01:46

Epigenetic Regulation

Epigenetic mechanisms play an essential role in healthy development. Conversely, precisely regulated epigenetic mechanisms are disrupted in diseases like cancer.
Epigenetic Regulation01:37

Epigenetic Regulation

Epigenetic changes alter the physical structure of the DNA without changing the genetic sequence and often regulate whether genes are turned on or off. This regulation ensures that each cell produces only proteins necessary for its function. For example, proteins that promote bone growth are not produced in muscle cells. Epigenetic mechanisms play an essential role in healthy development. Conversely, precisely regulated epigenetic mechanisms are disrupted in diseases like cancer.
X-chromosome...
Epigenetic Regulation01:46

Epigenetic Regulation

Epigenetic mechanisms play an essential role in healthy development. Conversely, precisely regulated epigenetic mechanisms are disrupted in diseases like cancer.
Inheritance of Chromatin Structures03:17

Inheritance of Chromatin Structures

Epigenetics is the study of inherited changes in a cell's phenotype without changing the DNA sequences. It provides a form of memory for the differential gene expression pattern to maintain cell lineage, position-effect variegation, dosage compensation, and maintenance of chromatin structures such as telomeres and centromeres. For example, the structure and location of the centromere on chromosomes are epigenetically inherited. Its functionality is not dictated or ensured by the underlying DNA...
Position-effect Variegation02:32

Position-effect Variegation

In 1928, a German botanist Emil Heitz observed the moss nuclei with a DNA binding dye. He observed that while some chromatin regions decondense and spread out in the interphase nucleus, others do not. He termed them euchromatin and heterochromatin, respectively. He proposed that the heterochromatin regions reflect a functionally inactive state of the genome. It was later confirmed that heterochromatin is transcriptionally repressed, and euchromatin is transcriptionally active chromatin.
Heterochromatin02:38

Heterochromatin

The extent of chromatin compaction can be studied by staining chromatin using specific DNA binding dyes. Under the microscope, the dense-compacted regions that take up more dye are called heterochromatin. Heterochromatin is further classified into two forms – constitutive heterochromatin and facultative heterochromatin.
Constitutive heterochromatin: It is a highly compact region of chromatin that is mostly concentrated in the centromere and telomere. Unlike euchromatin, the amino acid at 9th...

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Repressing Gene Transcription by Redirecting Cellular Machinery with Chemical Epigenetic Modifiers
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A Polycomb-based switch underlying quantitative epigenetic memory.

Andrew Angel1, Jie Song, Caroline Dean

  • 1Department of Computational and Systems Biology, John Innes Centre, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7UH, UK.

Nature
|July 26, 2011
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Vernalization uses Polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2) to stably silence the FLC gene via histone 3 lysine 27 trimethylation (H3K27me3). The duration of cold exposure quantitatively controls this epigenetic silencing, impacting plant flowering.

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Area of Science:

  • Epigenetics and Plant Biology
  • Chromatin Biology
  • Molecular Mechanisms of Gene Silencing

Background:

  • Polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2) establishes epigenetic silencing through H3K27me3.
  • Vernalization in Arabidopsis involves PRC2-mediated silencing of the floral repressor FLC.
  • The stability and nucleation of PRC2-mediated silencing remain key research questions.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the quantitative nature of vernalization-induced epigenetic silencing of FLC.
  • To elucidate the mechanism of PRC2 nucleation and stability at the FLC locus.
  • To understand how cold exposure duration influences stable epigenetic memory.

Main Methods:

  • Mathematical modeling of epigenetic dynamics.
  • Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) to quantify H3K27me3 levels.
  • An FLC:GUS reporter assay to assess gene expression patterns in individual cells.

Main Results:

  • Cold exposure duration quantitatively dictates the number of cells with stable H3K27me3-mediated FLC silencing.
  • H3K27me3 levels progressively increase in a localized nucleation region within FLC during cold treatment.
  • A bistable epigenetic switching mechanism at the FLC locus is proposed, dependent on cold duration and verified experimentally.

Conclusions:

  • The quantitative aspect of vernalization relies on a subpopulation of cells achieving stable H3K27me3 silencing of FLC.
  • Localized nucleation of H3K27me3 marks drives a bistable switch in FLC gene expression.
  • This mechanism of epigenetic reprogramming via localized histone modification nucleation is likely broadly applicable.