epigenetics, genetics & genomics, genetics

Studies The Scientist covered this year illustrate the expanding importance of genetic and genomic research in all aspects of life science, from ecology to medicine.

Hydra vulgaris constantly replenish the cells in their heads and grow new ones to reproduce asexually. But gene expression analyses reveal that regenerating a head after an injury is a very different process.

The methodology involves modifying histones and displaying them on the cell surface for analysis.

By harnessing a unique property of yeast, scientists can synthesize histones and the enzymes that modify these proteins, which spool DNA and influence gene expression.

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.

Weill Cornell Medicine geneticist Christopher Mason speaks with The Scientist about a bolus of new work on the physiological, cellular, and molecular effects of leaving Earth.

Tel Aviv University neuroscientist Oded Rechavi discusses his studies on the inheritance of acquired traits.

The Tel Aviv University researcher is interested in how the macromolecules affect the health and behavior of successive generations of worms.

A number of rare diseases show unique epigenetic patterns across the genome, a feature researchers have now exploited to build a diagnostic tool.

Certain populations have been historically underrepresented in genome sequencing studies, but the NIH, private clinics, and 23andMe and other companies are trying to fix that.

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.

Male rodents exposed to nicotine had changes in sperm genome methylation and produced pups and grandpups with abnormal behavior.

Methylation patterns at so-called metastable epialleles in the genome stamp a memory into each of our cells.

The variation may help explain why stocked salmon don’t fare as well in the ocean.

The switch from maternal factors involves dynamic reprogramming of the zygotic genome.

To expand the basic nucleotide alphabet, many species modify their DNA with epigenetic marks.

The memory of a temperature spike can persist for as many as 14 generations in C. elegans.

Transfer RNA fragments prevent jumping genes from hopping around in the mouse embryo, when histone methylation can’t do the job.