Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 11, 2025

Cultivate Primary Nasal Epithelial Cells from Children and Reprogram into Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells
Published on: March 10, 2016
Design principles of 3D epigenetic memory systems
Jeremy A Owen1, Dino Osmanović2, Leonid Mirny1
1Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Abstract:
Cells remember their identities, in part, by using epigenetic marks-chemical modifications placed along the genome. How can mark patterns remain stable over cell generations despite their constant erosion by replication and other processes? We developed a theoretical model that reveals that three-dimensional (3D) genome organization can stabilize epigenetic memory as long as (i) there is a large density difference between chromatin compartments, (ii) modifying "reader-writer" enzymes spread marks in three dimensions, and (iii) the enzymes are limited in abundance relative to their histone substrates. Analogous to an associative memory that encodes memory in neuronal connectivity, mark patterns are encoded in a 3D network of chromosomal contacts. Our model provides a unified account of diverse observations and reveals a key role of 3D genome organization in epigenetic memory.
Related Concept Videos
Inheritance of Chromatin Structures
Epigenetic Regulation
X-chromosome...
Genomic Imprinting and Inheritance
The expression of some genes depends on which parent passed the gene to the offspring, through a phenomenon known as...
Duplication of Chromatin Structure
The basic unit of the chromatin is the nucleosome, consisting of DNA wrapped around octameric histone proteins and short stretches of linker DNA separating individual nucleosomes. The histone proteins within the nucleosome have their...
Position-effect Variegation
DNA as a Genetic Template

