Epigenetics articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    A strategy to control HIV-1 infection is to stably repress HIV-1 and induce “deep latency”. Here the authors show that a recombinant anti-HIV-1-1 protein can be packaged as mRNA into exosomes and delivered systemically to repress HIV-1-1 within the context of virus infected mice and achieve long term silencing of HIV-1-1 expression.

    • Surya Shrivastava
    • , Roslyn M. Ray
    •  & Kevin V. Morris

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Human metaplastic breast cancers (MpBC) are a rare, aggressive subclass of triple-negative breast cancers. Here, the authors show over-expression of histone reader TRIM24 is sufficient to generate tumors with a molecular signature of metabolic dysfunction and EMT in a mouse model of human MpBC.

    • Vrutant V. Shah
    • , Aundrietta D. Duncan
    •  & Michelle Craig Barton

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Polycomb repressive complexes (PRC1 and PRC2) repress genes that are crucial for development via epigenetic modifications; however, their role in differentiation is not well known. Here the authors reveal that a PCGF1-containing PRC1 variant facilitates exit from pluripotency by downregulating target genes and recruiting PRC2.

    • Hiroki Sugishita
    • , Takashi Kondo
    •  & Haruhiko Koseki

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Some autosomal genes are expressed in a random monoallelic manner, but its extent and mechanisms have remained unclear. Here the authors show robust monoallelic expression in cell lines and mice, where the silent allele can be reexpressed using epidrugs. Further, they find these genes display various modalities of allelic expression with different degrees of allelic imbalance.

    • Lucile Marion-Poll
    • , Benjamin Forêt
    •  & Edith Heard

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The global pattern of the mammalian methylome is formed by changes in methylation and demethylation. Here the authors describe a metric methylation concurrence that measures the ratio of unmethylated CpGs inside the partially methylated reads and show that methylation concurrence is associated with epigenetically regulated tumour suppressor genes.

    • Jiejun Shi
    • , Jianfeng Xu
    •  & Wei Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors provide a comprehensive, single base resolution view of association between genetic variation and DNA methylation in human brain. They also show that heritability attributed to schizophrenia GWAS-associated variants reflects the epigenetic plasticity of the brain.

    • Kira A. Perzel Mandell
    • , Nicholas J. Eagles
    •  & Andrew E. Jaffe

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Maternal smoking during pregnancy contributes to poor birth outcomes. Here the authors perform a meta-analysis of the associations between maternal smoking during pregnancy and placental DNA methylation and identify links between these and poor birth outcomes, which may better inform the mechanisms through which smoking impacts placental function and fetal growth.

    • Todd M. Everson
    • , Marta Vives-Usano
    •  & Mariona Bustamante

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The histone acetyltransferase p300 mostly localizes to active chromatin; however, some repressed genes marked with H3K27me3 are also bound by p300. Here the authors show p300 is capable of phase separation, which relies on its catalytic core, and that p300 catalytic activity is decreased in phase-separated droplets that co-localize with H3K27me3-marked chromatin.

    • Yi Zhang
    • , Kyle Brown
    •  & Tatiana G. Kutateladze

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2) is a histone methyltransferase regulating cell differentiation and identity. Here, the authors show that the vertebrate-specific PRC2 accessory subunit PALI1 facilitates substrate binding by the complex and elucidate the allosteric mechanism of PALI1- mediated PRC2 activation.

    • Qi Zhang
    • , Samuel C. Agius
    •  & Chen Davidovich

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Germline mutations in the DNMT3A gene can cause an overgrowth syndrome associated with behavioural and hematopoietic phenotypes. Here the authors describe a mouse model of this syndrome that recapitulates many of these features, including conserved alterations in DNA methylation in the blood cells of both species.

    • Amanda M. Smith
    • , Taylor A. LaValle
    •  & Timothy J. Ley

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Whether thyroid hormones affect gene expression via DNA methylation is not well known. Here the authors show that type 2 deiodinase (D2) converts T4 to produce T3, which prevents DNA methylation of discrete areas in the neonatal liver. In the absence of D2, DNA methylation occurs and is associated with reduced chromatin accessibility in promoters and enhancers and affects gene expression.

    • Tatiana L. Fonseca
    • , Tzintzuni Garcia
    •  & Antonio C. Bianco

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Globin loci harbor genes that are expressed embryonically and silenced postnatally. Here the authors show that zeta-globin silencing depends upon selective hypoacetylation of its TAD subdomain, which blocks its interaction with the alpha-globin super-enhancer, and zeta-globin can be reactivated by acetylation.

    • Andrew J. King
    • , Duantida Songdej
    •  & Christian Babbs

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Histone H3K9 methylation (H3K9me) states define repressed chromatin in eukaryotic cells. Here the authors reveal complete loss of all H3K9me in mammalian cells through successive deletion of H3K9 methyltransferase genes that results in the dissolution of heterochromatin and the derepression of nearly all repeat families.

    • Thomas Montavon
    • , Nicholas Shukeir
    •  & Thomas Jenuwein

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A SNP distant from the human insulin (INS) gene near the KRTAP5-6 gene confers increased susceptibility to type 2 diabetes when present on the paternal allele while decreased susceptibility when on the maternal allele. Here the authors show that long-range contacts between the INS locus and the KRTAP5-6 gene locus distinguish paternal and maternal alleles.

    • Xing Jian
    •  & Gary Felsenfeld

  • Article
    | Open Access

    MORC ATPases are required for transposable element silencing and heterochromatin condensation in plants and animals. Here the authors show that Arabidopsis MORCs colocalize with sites of RNA-directed DNA methylation and provide evidence that they act as molecular tethers to efficiently establish DNA methylation.

    • Yan Xue
    • , Zhenhui Zhong
    •  & Steven E. Jacobsen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The virulence of some infectious diseases seems to depend on the sex of the host the infection came from, as well as that of the current host. Here, McLeod et al. develop an epidemiological model to investigate the evolution of virulence when pathogens can retain epigenetic memories of their previous host.

    • David V. McLeod
    • , Geoff Wild
    •  & Francisco Úbeda

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Charting the landscape of 5hmC in human tissues is fundamental to understanding its regulatory functions. Here, we systematically profiled the whole-genome 5hmC landscape at single-base resolution for 19 types of human tissues and found 5hmC shows tissue-specific patterns.

    • Bo He
    • , Chao Zhang
    •  & Chengqi Yi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Stable epigenetic changes are relatively rare. Here the authors report that mating induces stable silencing of a single-copy transgene in C. elegans. Components of small RNA silencing are required for this stable silencing.

    • Sindhuja Devanapally
    • , Pravrutha Raman
    •  & Antony M. Jose

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Few studies have provided functional analysis of the epigenetic landscape in the regenerating liver. Here the authors define chromatin states in the quiescent vs. regenerating mouse liver through integration of genome wide profiles of DNA methylation, histone modifications, and chromatin accessibility, identifying H3K27me3 as an epigenetic mark conferring regenerative potential.

    • Chi Zhang
    • , Filippo Macchi
    •  & Kirsten C. Sadler

  • Article
    | Open Access

    α-ketoglutarate (αKG) is an intermediate in the tricarboxylic acid cycle that is required in the nucleus for genomic DNA demethylation by Tet3. Here, the authors show that the enzyme glutamate dehydrogenase, which converts glutamate to αKG, is redirected from the mitochondria to the nucleus.

    • Franziska R. Traube
    • , Dilara Özdemir
    •  & Thomas Carell

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Abnormal blood lipid levels are important risk factors for cardiovascular and other various diseases. Here the authors conduct a large-scale multi-ethnic epigenome-wide association study combined with epigenetic (cis-QTL and eQTM) data, and identify CpG-lipid traits associations that are specific to or common across racial/ethnic groups.

    • Min-A Jhun
    • , Michael Mendelson
    •  & Themistocles L. Assimes

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The cellular heterogeneity in brain obscures the identification of robust cellular regulatory networks. Here the authors integrate genome-wide chromosome conformation data from sorted neurons and glia, with transcriptomic and enhancer profiles, to characterize cell-type-specific gene regulatory landscapes in the human brain, and provide insights into cell-type-specific gene regulatory networks in brain disorders.

    • Benxia Hu
    • , Hyejung Won
    •  & Daniel H. Geschwind

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In most mammals, imprinted genes contain epigenetic marks that differ in each parental genome and control their parent-of-origin-specific expression. Here, the authors map imprinted genes in mouse preimplantation embryos and find that imprinted gene expression in blastocysts is mainly dependent on Polycomb-mediated H3K27me3-associated gene silencing.

    • Laura Santini
    • , Florian Halbritter
    •  & Martin Leeb

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The E3 ligase Hakai can interact with the m6A methylation machinery but its function is still unclear. Here, the authors show that Hakai is a conserved component of the m6A methyltransferase complex and provide functional and molecular insights into its role in regulating m6A levels in Drosophila.

    • Praveen Bawankar
    • , Tina Lence
    •  & Jean-Yves Roignant

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Abnormal folate metabolism in mice results in transgenerational epigenetic inheritance of congenital malformations. Here, the authors provide evidence that defective folate metabolism causes germline epigenetic instability and observe multigenerational misexpression of Hira in embryos, implicating Hira transcript levels as a biomarker of maternal phenotypic inheritance.

    • Georgina E. T. Blake
    • , Xiaohui Zhao
    •  & Erica D. Watson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Gliomas are tumors often associated with epigenetics-related gene deregulation. Here the authors reveal an atlas of active enhancers and promoters in benign and malignant gliomas by performing whole-genome mapping of chromatin accessibility, histone modifications, DNA methylation patterns and transcriptome analysis simultaneously in multiple tumor samples.

    • Karolina Stępniak
    • , Magdalena A. Machnicka
    •  & Bartek Wilczyński

  • Article
    | Open Access

    DNA methylation targets CpG island promoters of germline genes to repress their expression in mouse somatic cells. Here the authors show that a transcription factor E2F6 is required to target CpG island DNA methylation and epigenetic silencing to germline genes during early mouse development.

    • Thomas Dahlet
    • , Matthias Truss
    •  & Michael Weber

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Although epigenome-wide association studies of Alzheimer’s disease have highlighted neuropathology-associated DNA methylation differences, previous studies have been limited in sample size and brain region used. Here, the authors combine data from six DNA methylomic studies of Alzheimer’s disease (N = 1453 unique individuals) to identify differentially methylated loci across cortex.

    • Rebecca G. Smith
    • , Ehsan Pishva
    •  & Katie Lunnon

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Both A/B compartments and TADs are thought to be absent from the inactive X chromosome, but to be re-established with transcriptional reactivation and chromatin opening during X-reactivation. Here, the authors characterise gene reactivation, chromatin opening and chromosome topology during X-reactivation, observe A/B-like compartments on the inactive X that guide TAD formation independently of transcription during X-reactivation.

    • Moritz Bauer
    • , Enrique Vidal
    •  & Bernhard Payer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Moderate heat stress primes plants to acquire tolerance to subsequent, more severe heat stress. Here the authors show that the HSFA3 transcription factor forms a heteromeric complex with HSFA2 to sustain activated transcription of genes required for acquired thermotolerance by promoting H3K4 hyper-methylation.

    • Thomas Friedrich
    • , Vicky Oberkofler
    •  & Isabel Bäurle

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The epigenetic mechanisms coordinating the maintenance of adult cellular lineages remain poorly understood. Here the authors demonstrate that HIRA, a H3.3 histone chaperone, establishes the chromatin landscape required for skeletal muscle cell identity.

    • Joana Esteves de Lima
    • , Reem Bou Akar
    •  & Frédéric Relaix

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The functional relevance of epigenetic modifications on transcription regulation has been an important question since their discovery. Here, the authors investigate the effect of DNA methylation on Pioneer Transcription Factor (PF) binding and distinguish between PFs that protect their binding sites from methylation and those that bind to methylated DNA and induce DNA demethylation.

    • Ludovica Vanzan
    • , Hadrien Soldati
    •  & Rabih Murr

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Myelin formation is regulated by epigenetic mechanisms and ensures proper neuronal function during development and after demyelination. Here, the authors show that TET1, a DNA hydroxymethylase, regulates myelin repair in adult mice, but is defective with aging.

    • Sarah Moyon
    • , Rebecca Frawley
    •  & Patrizia Casaccia

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The heterogeneity of tumor evolution from AR-positive, adenocarcinoma to AR-negative, neuroendocrine prostate cancer (NEPC) is not fully characterized. Here the authors generate a mouse model to show that Rb1 loss and MYCN overexpression accelerates the progression to AR-negative NEPC and identify emergence of distinct subpopulations of NEPC cells.

    • Nicholas J. Brady
    • , Alyssa M. Bagadion
    •  & David S. Rickman

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In plants, RNA-directed DNA methylation (RdDM) is a de novo DNA methylation pathway that is responsible for transcriptional silencing of repetitive elements. Here, the authors characterized a new RdDM factor, RDM15, and show that it is required for RdDM-dependent DNA methylation and siRNA accumulation at a subset of RdDM target loci.

    • Qingfeng Niu
    • , Zhe Song
    •  & Zhaobo Lang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Post-translational modifications (PTM) of histones are important for epigenetic regulation in mammals. Here, Cheeseman et al. report dynamic changes in H3K18 PTM during the differentiation stages of Theileria parasites and they identify a SET-domain methyltransferase (TaSETup1) as the relevant enzyme promoting this modification.

    • Kevin Cheeseman
    • , Guillaume Jannot
    •  & Jonathan B. Weitzman

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Multi-layered epigenetic regulation in higher eukaryotes makes it challenging to disentangle the individual effects of modifications on chromatin structure and function. Here, the authors expressed mammalian DNA methyltransferases in yeast, which have no DNA methylation, to show that methylation has intrinsic effects on chromatin structure.

    • Diana Buitrago
    • , Mireia Labrador
    •  & Modesto Orozco

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The ability to target DNA methylation to specific loci is important for both basic and applied research. Here, the authors fuse CG-specific methyltransferase SssI with an artificial zinc finger protein for DNA methylation targeting and show the chromatin features favorable for efficient gain of methylation.

    • Wanlu Liu
    • , Javier Gallego-Bartolomé
    •  & Steven E. Jacobsen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    While coffee and tea consumption has been associated with risk of diseases, their mechanisms of action remain elusive. Here the authors present a large EWAS on coffee and tea consumption in cohorts of European and African-American ancestries, finding that coffee consumption is associated with differential DNA methylation levels at multiple CpGs.

    • Irma Karabegović
    • , Eliana Portilla-Fernandez
    •  & Mohsen Ghanbari

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Phc1 is a subunit of the polycomb repressive complex 1 (PRC1), which represses gene expression during development. Here the authors show that Phc1 acts independently from PRC1 to activate Nanog transcription by stabilizing genome-wide chromatin interactions of the Nanog locus, and in turn stabilize pluripotency.

    • Li Chen
    • , Qiaoqiao Tong
    •  & Junfeng Ji

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