Epigenetics articles within Nature

Featured

  • News & Views |

    It emerges that the SARS-CoV-2 virus has evolved to mimic one of the histone proteins that package DNA in the cell nucleus. This mimicry leads to disrupted gene transcription and a diminished antiviral response.

    • Lisa Thomann
    •  & Volker Thiel

  • News & Views |

    Gene expression is regulated by clusters of regulatory DNA sequences called enhancers. Basic design principles that protect enhancer networks against the harmful effects of genetic mutations have now been elucidated.

    • Ran Elkon
    •  & Reuven Agami

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The structures of single COOLAIR RNA isoforms change in abundance and shape in response to external conditions; structural mutation of these isoforms altered FLC expression and flowering time, consistent with a regulatory role of the COOLAIR structure in FLC transcription.

    • Minglei Yang
    • , Pan Zhu
    •  & Yiliang Ding

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A study shows that the three-dimensional conformation of the human genome influences the positioning of DNA replication initiation zones, highlighting cohesin-mediated loop anchors as essential determinants of their precise location.

    • Daniel J. Emerson
    • , Peiyao A. Zhao
    •  & Jennifer E. Phillips-Cremins

  • News & Views |

    It emerges that high blood sugar deregulates the enzyme TET3 in the eggs of female mice, preventing it from properly modifying sperm-derived DNA when eggs are fertilized. This leads to metabolic defects in adult progeny.

    • Yumiko K. Kawamura
    •  & Antoine H. F. M. Peters

  • News & Views |

    A protein complex called the rixosome helps to degrade RNA transcripts that linger after gene expression ceases. This discovery points to distinct roles for the rixosome in regulating chromatin in different species.

    • Michael Uckelmann
    •  & Chen Davidovich

  • Outlook |

    If biological ageing can be slowed, halted or rewound, are the machine-learning algorithms the best way to measure it? Some experts are unconvinced.

    • Liam Drew

  • Article |

    Following global DNA demethylation, mouse gonadal primordial germ cells undergo remodelling of repressive chromatin modifications, resulting in a sex-specific signature that is required to safeguard the transcriptional program.

    • Tien-Chi Huang
    • , Yi-Fang Wang
    •  & Petra Hajkova

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In Arabidopsis thaliana, downregulation of the floral repressor FLC in response to cold occurs through a mechanism in which the FLC activator FRIGIDA is sequestered into biomolecular condensates away from the FLC promoter.

    • Pan Zhu
    • , Clare Lister
    •  & Caroline Dean

  • Article |

    KDM5B recruits SETDB1 to repress endogenous retroelements such as MMVL30, suppressing anti-tumour immunity, and the depletion of KDM5B induces a robust adaptive immune response and enhances the response to immune checkpoint blockade.

    • Shang-Min Zhang
    • , Wesley L. Cai
    •  & Qin Yan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A comprehensive survey of the epigenome from 45 regions of the mouse cortex, hippocampus, striatum, pallidum and olfactory areas using single-nucleus DNA methylation sequencing enables identification of 161 cell clusters with distinct locations and projection targets and provides insights into the regulatory landscape underlying neuronal diversity and spatial regulation.

    • Hanqing Liu
    • , Jingtian Zhou
    •  & Joseph R. Ecker

  • News & Views |

    The protein UTX regulates the DNA–protein complex chromatin to suppress tumour growth. Data suggest that the ability of UTX to condense into liquid-like droplets underlies its chromatin-regulating ability.

    • David Lara-Astiaso
    •  & Brian J. P. Huntly

  • Article |

    Phase separation properties are a major determinant of UTX activity in chromatin regulation in tumour suppression, and are dependent on a core intrinsically disordered region of the protein.

    • Bi Shi
    • , Wei Li
    •  & Hao Jiang

  • News & Views |

    A previously unknown subgroup of uterine fibroid tumours is driven by mutations that result in disruption of the DNA–protein complex chromatin. The findings could inform the management of this common condition.

    • Zehra Ordulu

  • Article |

    BANP is identified as the transcription factor that binds the CGCG element in a DNA-methylation-dependent manner, opens chromatin and activates a class of essential CpG-island-regulated genes.

    • Ralph S. Grand
    • , Lukas Burger
    •  & Dirk Schübeler

  • Research Summary |

    Use of chromatin immunoprecipitation with exonuclease treatment (ChIP–exo) determines the positional organization of hundreds of chromosomal proteins throughout the Saccharomyces cerevisiae genome. The resulting ultra-high-resolution map provides insight into the regulation of genes, enhancers, replication origins, centromeres, subtelomeres and transposons.

    • B. Franklin Pugh

  • News & Views |

    Cancer-associated mutations promote the formation of pancreatic tumours after tissue injury, but how this occurs is unclear. Changes to chromatin in injured cells with such mutations explain this predisposition to malignancy.

    • Dane Vassiliadis
    •  & Mark A. Dawson

  • News & Views |

    Two studies show that some cancers are driven by genetic changes in the NSD3 protein that alter its enzymatic activity. Biochemical and structural characterization hints at a route to pharmacological reversal.

    • Martyna W. Sroka
    •  & Christopher R. Vakoc

  • News & Views |

    Neurons progressively deteriorate with age and lose resilience to injury. It emerges that treatment with three transcription factors can re-endow neurons in the mature eye with youthful characteristics and the capacity to regenerate.

    • Andrew D. Huberman

  • Article |

    Expression of three Yamanaka transcription factors in mouse retinal ganglion cells restores youthful DNA methylation patterns, promotes axon regeneration after injury, and reverses vision loss in a mouse model of glaucoma and in aged mice, suggesting that mammalian tissues retain a record of youthful epigenetic information that can be accessed to improve tissue function.

    • Yuancheng Lu
    • , Benedikt Brommer
    •  & David A. Sinclair

  • Article |

    A protein condensate formed by multivalent interactions between the long non-coding RNA Xist and specific RNA-binding proteins drives the compartmentalization required to perpetuate gene silencing on the inactive X chromosome.

    • Amy Pandya-Jones
    • , Yolanda Markaki
    •  & Kathrin Plath

  • Article |

    Exposing Caenorhabditis elegans to non-coding small RNAs from pathogenic Pseudomonas aeruginosa induces avoidance behaviours in treated worms and their progeny, which reveals how C. elegans discriminates between bacterial species in its microbial environment.

    • Rachel Kaletsky
    • , Rebecca S. Moore
    •  & Coleen T. Murphy

  • Article |

    Fission yeast grown in sublethal levels of caffeine develop heterochromatin-dependent epimutations conferring unstable heritable gene silencing that conveys resistance to caffeine, while remaining genetically wild type.

    • Sito Torres-Garcia
    • , Imtiyaz Yaseen
    •  & Robin C. Allshire

  • Perspective |

    The authors summarize the history of the ENCODE Project, the achievements of ENCODE 1 and ENCODE 2, and how the new data generated and analysed in ENCODE 3 complement the previous phases.

    • Federico Abascal
    • , Reyes Acosta
    •  & Richard M. Myers

  • Article |

    The chromatin protein MeCP2 is a component of dynamic, liquid-like heterochromatin condensates, and the ability of MeCP2 to form condensates is disrupted by mutations in the MECP2 gene that occur in the neurodevelopmental disorder Rett syndrome.

    • Charles H. Li
    • , Eliot L. Coffey
    •  & Richard A. Young

  • Article |

    The histone variant H3.3 is phosphorylated at Ser31 in induced genes, and this selective mark stimulates the histone methyltransferase SETD2 and ejects the ZMYND11 repressor, thus revealing a role for histone phosphorylation in amplifying de novo transcription.

    • Anja Armache
    • , Shuang Yang
    •  & Steven Z. Josefowicz

  • Article |

    The DNA modification N6-methyladenine regulates gene expression during mouse trophoblast development by depositing at the boundaries of active chromatin and preventing its spread by antagonizing the chromatin organizer SATB1.

    • Zheng Li
    • , Shuai Zhao
    •  & Andrew Z. Xiao

  • News & Views |

    It emerges that strings of nucleotides are added to messenger RNAs that are undergoing silencing in nematode worms. The composition of these nucleotide tails promotes the formation of small RNAs that drive heritable gene regulation.

    • Kailee J. Reed
    •  & Taiowa A. Montgomery

  • Article |

    In Caenorhabditis elegans, the ribonucleotidyltransferase RDE-3 adds alternating uridine and guanosine ribonucleotides to the 3′ termini of RNAs, a key step in RNA interference and thus epigenetic inheritance in the C. elegans germline.

    • Aditi Shukla
    • , Jenny Yan
    •  & Scott Kennedy

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