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Updated: Feb 10, 2026

Repressing Gene Transcription by Redirecting Cellular Machinery with Chemical Epigenetic Modifiers
Published on: September 20, 2018
Environmental effects on chromatin repression at imprinted genes and endogenous retroviruses
1Institute of Molecular Genetics of Montpellier (IGMM), CNRS and University of Montpellier, 1919, route de Mende, 34293 Montpellier, France.
Abstract:
Environmental factors can perturb epigenetic regulation. In mammals, most studies have focused on repressive DNA methylation. Two attractive model systems to monitor environmentally triggered drifts in DNA methylation are genomic imprinting and endogenous retroviruses (ERVs), particularly intracisternal-A particles (IAPs). These systems show mechanistic similarities in their repressive chromatin organization, which in somatic cells is comparable between the DNA-methylated alleles of imprinted differentially methylated regions (DMRs) and repressed ERVs. Here, we present how during development, nutrition and chemical components can perturb DNA methylation at imprinted genes and ERVs, and discuss the still poorly understood underlying mechanisms.
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