It turns out that the methylation status of enhancer regions is cell-type specific, suggesting that enhancers might be big shots when it comes to cell fate
Researchers show that an unstable nucleosome sitting smack dab in the center of an enhancer can get kicked off to make way for transcription factors and gene expression.
A team of researchers at the Whitehead Institute have found that the histone mark H3K27ac identifies active enhancers and predicts a cell’s developmental state.
New work published begins the process of creating chromatin state roadmaps to help point epigenetics researchers down the right path. To make that journey a little smoother, a research group took on the project of mapping chromatin states in nine human cell types. In each cell-line they tracked nine different chromatin marks via ChIP-seq, which they then analyzed to look for regulatory elements, functional roles and cell-type specificities.
More functional categories of ncRNAs have recently been identified, and you can be sure that more are on the way. Trying to keep microRNAs (miRNAs), Piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs), small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) , not to mention the subgroup, large intergenic non-coding RNAs (lincRNAs), the newly described enhancer RNAs (eRNAs) and promoter-associated RNAs (PARs) all straight can be quite daunting.
Researchers used chromosome conformation capture carbon copy (5C) to comprehensively study long-range interactions between promoters and “distal” elements.
Researchers report that some genes can escape from the stranglehold of silencing that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) impose. And they do it with the help of enhancers that drive the chromatin to form acrobatic 3D structures.
The 3-dimensional structure of chromatin has some very special effects on the regulation of gene transcription.
Researchers have evidence that they’ve identified a signature of enhancer histone modifications that points to colon cancer
Researchers say that they have a better idea of how development happens—and enhancers are showing them the way by pointing out active genes.
