Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
In a recent issue of Nature, Kumar et al. demonstrate that the oncogenic potential of the Hmga2 gene is largely due to the ability of its transcript to operate as a competing endogenous RNA in a protein coding-independent manner. The Hmga2 mRNA decoys the let-7 microRNA family to regulate Tgfbr3 expression and enhance TGF-β signaling, thereby promoting lung cancer progression.
Chemical modifications of histone proteins directly and indirectly affect chromatin structure and thereby contribute to the multilayered control of diverse DNA-based processes. A recent study in Nature enriches this list of enzyme-dependent posttranslational histone marks by H2A glutamine methylation that appears to be dedicated to only one specific cellular process, the regulation of nucleolar rDNA transcription.
DNA methylation is a fundamental epigenetic mechanism governing regulation of gene expression during mammalian development. A recent study published in Nature shows a novel long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) arising from the CEBPA gene locus (termed ecCEBPA) that is critical for regulation of DNA methylation at this site through the association of ecCEBPA with DNA methyltransferase 1, DNMT1.
A recent study published in Immunity shows that foreign antigens elicit all-or-nothing T cell responses and that a single antigen is enough to trigger this digital cytokine secretion.
