Epigenomics

图书介绍

Epigenetic modifications act on DNA and its packaging proteins, the histones, to regulate genome function. Manifest as the methylation of DNA and as post-translational histone modifications, these molecular flags influence the architecture, integrity and packaging of the chromosome, the accessibility of DNA to regulatory components and the ability of chromatin to interact with functional nuclear complexes. While a multicellular individual has only one genome, it has multiple epigenomes reflecting the diversity of cell types and their properties at different times of life; in healthy and in compromised situations. The relationships between the underlying DNA sequence, the dynamic changes in epigenetic states and the consequences of this for the cell or organism, are beginning to emerge as the functions of epigenetic modifications in particular model systems and model organisms are studied. These integrated approaches go hand-in-hand with genome-wide studies describing the location of epigenetic modifications in different cell types at different times that allow functional correlations to be made.