DNA methylation

The concept of epigenetic inheritance has long been controversial. Some researchers hope that new data on cross-generational effects of environmental exposures will help settle the debate.

A pair of new studies finds that analyzing material from a Pap smear can reveal tumor risk in distant parts of the body, potentially allowing early interventions.

An epigenome-wide association study found more than a dozen methylation changes in placental DNA that correlated with expectant mothers’ self-reports of depression and stress during their pregnancy.

A study links the loss of DNA methylation across the genome—as is common in cancer—to the disruption of the 3-D compartments that organize the genome and to the timing of DNA replication.

Cells found in different branches of a tree have different patterns of DNA methylation, changes in which accumulate over time.

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

Altering DNA methylation in a particular area of the hypothalamus halved the animals’ voluntary exercise as adults.

A study suggests that the direct transfer of DNA methylation marks from one generation to the next is much less common than scientists previously thought.

A clock constructed of rDNA methylation sites can estimate both chronological and biological age across species.

Clinical analyses of patients’ gene sequences are helping to provide answers where none were available before.

New technologies reveal the dynamic changes in mouse and human embryos during the first week after fertilization.

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

Researchers are just beginning to scratch the surface of how several newly recognized epigenetic changes function in the genome.

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

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.

Researchers attempt to estimate how much of the human genome’s methylation patterns can be attributed to genetic ancestry.

Three techniques for identifying the collection of maternal and paternal genes silenced in offspring