Epigenetic control of vasopressin expression is maintained by steroid hormones in the adult male rat brain

The authors explored how steroid hormones affect methylation in the adult brain using a rat model. They castrated male rats, effectively removing their endemic source of testosterone. Testosterone exposure is necessary for the synthesis of vasopressin, so castration decreases vasopressin. However, castration also increases estrogen receptor α. They found that castration increased methylation of the vasopressin promoter and decreased the ERα methylation. These results suggest that the methylation of some steroid-responsive genes in the adult brain is maintained by the presence of circulating steroid hormones (in this case, testosterone).

Epigenetics and ACE

"Epigenetic regulation of somatic angiotensin-converting enzyme by DNA methylation and histone acetylation." Methylated CpG islands are all up in ACE's grill, messing with somatic ACE expression.

Twin studies - new role

Nice review paper on twin studies of epigenetics in recent TIG:

"We describe how large-scale epigenetic studies of twins can improve our understand- ing of how genetic, environmental and stochastic factors impact upon epigenetics, and how such studies can provide a comprehensive understanding of how epige- netic variation affects complex traits."

Yet More - epigenetics on the dad's side

New papers in Nature and Cell.

They " looked at the effect of a paternal low-protein diet in mice. Offspring of both sexes showed altered gene expression compared to controls, including genes involved in fat and cholesterol biosynthesis, consistent with physiological differences in these mice. Modest changes in DNA methylation were seen at many sites, including a reproducible change close to the Ppara gene, which encodes peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-α, a regulator of lipid metabolism."

Personalized Epigenomics

soon it will be EWAS instead of GWAS...

epigenetics on the dad's side

A new study in Nature (Ng et al) shows evidence that the father's diet (prior to conception) can affect his offsprings' health. -- perfect timing given our recent lab meeting conversation

Science special issue on epigenetics

already flagged by Tim, but worth also linking to the ToC of this science issue -- perhaps articles on small RNAs and prions of later interest...

function of (linc)RNAs

Recent paper in Science about the function (..regulating epigenetic inheritance) of long (>200nt), intergenic, non-coding RNAs, aka lincRNAs.

epigenetics, social behavior and cognition

interesting NewFocus article on epigenetics, social behavior and cognition

From genotype to phenotype via epigenetics

The new issue of Heredity is dedicated to the topic:

What do epigenetics and epigenomics tell us?

The intro article is a nice little review.

some useful basics on epigenetics

Ah, I'm such a fan of U of Utah's Learn.Genetics site. Their tidbits on epigenetics are especially useful. I'm thinking we should do a special-topic lab meeting on epigenetics...