Nicola Vickaryous and Emma Whitelaw Abstract
The unraveling of the human genome is revealing the intertwined nature of epigenetic phenomena and the genetic code. Epigenetic modifications can alter patterns of gene expression, independent of DNA sequence mutation. Instead, epigenetic marks modify the existing DNA sequence. These modifications include cytosine methylation in the promoter region of genes, a phenomena associated with transcriptional silencing, and recruitment of chromatin remodeling complexes. Epigenetic marks are established...
Developmental Origins of Cardiovascular Disease Type 2 Diabetes and Obesity in
Fetal growth restriction and low weight gain in infancy are associated with an increased risk of adult cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and the Metabolic Syndrome. The fetal origins of adult disease hypothesis proposes that these associations reflect permanent changes in metabolism, body composition and tissue structure caused by undernutrition during critical periods of early development. An alternative hypothesis is that both small size at birth and later disease have a common genetic...
Epigenetic Lability at Transposable Elements
Except for a brief period of global demethylation in the early mammalian embryo, transposable elements in the genome are generally silenced by hypermethylation.15 However, these parasitic elements comprise over 45 of the mammalian genome, and their aberrant transcriptional activity can interfere with the expression of neighboring genes.32 Dysregulation of even a small fraction of human transposable elements could therefore cause substantial genomic instability.15'29 Notably, transposable...