Epigenetics articles within Nature

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  • Letter |

    Endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) are widely dispersed in mammalian genomes, and are silenced in somatic cells by DNA methylation. Here, an ERV silencing pathway independent of DNA methylation is shown to operate in embryonic stem cells. The pathway involves the histone H3K9 methyltransferase ESET and might be important for ERV silencing during the stages in embryogenesis when DNA methylation is reprogrammed.

    • Toshiyuki Matsui
    • , Danny Leung
    •  & Yoichi Shinkai

  • Letter |

    The extent of epigenetic reprogramming in mammalian primordial germ cells (PGCs) and in early embryos, and its molecular mechanisms, are poorly understood. DNA methylation profiling in PGCs now reveals a genome–wide erasure of methylation, with female PGCs being less methylated than male ones. A deficiency of the cytidine deaminase AID interferes with the genome–wide erasure of DNA methylation, indicating that AID has a critical function in epigenetic reprogramming.

    • Christian Popp
    • , Wendy Dean
    •  & Wolf Reik

  • Letter |

    Progenitor cells sustain the capacity of self-renewing tissues for proliferation while suppressing cell cycle exit and terminal differentiation. DNA methylation is one potential epigenetic mechanism for the cellular memory needed to preserve the somatic progenitor state through cell divisions. The DNA methyltransferase 1 and other regulators of DNA methylation are now shown to be essential for epidermal progenitor cell function.

    • George L. Sen
    • , Jason A. Reuter
    •  & Paul A. Khavari

  • Letter |

    Much of the mammalian genome is derived from retroelements, a significant proportion of which are endogenous retroviruses (ERVs). ERVs are transcriptionally silenced during early embryogenesis by histone and DNA methylation, but the initiators of this process are largely unknown. Here, deletion of KAP1 is shown to lead to a marked upregulation of a range of ERVs in mouse embryonic stem cells and in early embryos.

    • Helen M. Rowe
    • , Johan Jakobsson
    •  & Didier Trono

  • Letter |

    After fertilization in mammals, the maternal and paternal genomes undergo epigenetic reprogramming to prepare for the transition from germ cell to somatic cell transcription programs. One of the events that takes place is the demethylation of the paternal genome. To identify the factors involved in this process, a live cell imaging system is now used to monitor the paternal DNA methylation state in zygotes; Elp3, a component of the elongator complex, is found to have an important role.

    • Yuki Okada
    • , Kazuo Yamagata
    •  & Yi Zhang

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