Emerging technologies help researchers draw mechanistic links between metabolism and epigenetic modification of DNA.

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.

Plants grown in dry soil produce offspring that are hardier in drought conditions, and DNA methylation appears responsible. 

Methylation on adenine bases is involved in the dampening of gene expression in mammalian cells, according to a study.

DNA isn’t the only decorated nucleic acid in the cell. Modifications to RNA molecules are much more common and are critical for regulating diverse biological processes.