epigenetic reprogramming

Repairing damaged DNA appears to drive aging by causing the loss of epigenetic information, but restoring that information reverses such effects, a study finds.

A protein duo increases transcription of growth-related genes to enhance axon regeneration and boost plasticity, a study finds—but fails to improve mobility.

A CRISPR-based system that reverses epigenetic changes caused by adolescent binge drinking reduces adult addiction-like behaviors in rats, a study finds, suggesting that an epigenomic approach could someday help treat people with alcohol use disorder.

Obese mice that exercised while pregnant gave birth to pups that grew up free of the metabolic issues present in the adult young of sedentary obese mothers—possibly by staving off epigenetic changes to a key metabolic gene.

Researchers repaired what is otherwise irreversible damage in the animals’ ocular neurons, by activating transcription factors ordinarily used to generate induced pluripotent stem cells.

Using CRISPR and other tools, scientists are modifying DNA methylation, histone marks, and other modifiers of gene expression to understand how they affect health and disease.

Researchers use the technique to turn on Oct4 or Sox2 in mouse embryonic fibroblasts and convert them into pluripotent cells. 

Unlike animals, plants stably pass on their DNA methylomes from one generation to the next. The resulting gene silencing likely hides an abundance of phenotypic variation.

Multiple molecular mechanisms keep plant DNA methylation in order.

After initially discovering that DNA methylation represses transcription, Howard Cedar continues to explore how the epigenetic mark regulates gene expression.