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The epigenetic memory of a cell defines the set of modifications to the cell's deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) that do not alter the DNA sequence, and have been inherited from the cell from which it descends. Such modifications can alter gene expression and therefore the properties and behaviour of the cell.
Histone crotonylation has been shown to regulate transcription in multiple settings, but its role during preimplantation development has not been examined. Here they show that P300 regulated crotonylation during embryonic development and that H3K18cr marks active promoters in embryos, crucial for transcriptional activation and embryonic fate determination.
Liu, Xie and colleagues profile putative cis-regulatory elements in mouse oocytes and pre-implantation embryos. They further validate putative enhancers in oocytes and identify the transcription factors TCF3 and TCF12 as key regulators of folliculogenesis.
Parreno et al. provide evidence for epigenetically initiated cancers in Drosophila and show that cancer develops after transient loss of Polycomb group proteins in the absence of recurrent mutations.
The replicational age of single cells provides a temporal reference for tracking cell fate transition trajectories. The computational framework EpiTrace measures cell age using single-cell ATAC-seq data, specifically by considering chromatin accessibility at clock-like genomic loci, enabling the reconstruction of the history of developmental and pathological processes.
The interplay between DNA and its associated proteins has a crucial role in regulating gene expression and determining cellular identity. Here we revisit an earlier Nature Cell Biology study that established the chromatin signature associated with pluripotency.
In a recent Developmental Cell paper, Falvo et al. establish a role for epigenetic memory of inflammatory injury in promoting pancreatic tumorigenesis.