A new horizon for epigenetic medicine?

• 来源期刊: 细胞研究（英文版）
• 年，卷（期）: 2013,（3）
• 页码范围: 326-328
• 页数: 3页
• 语种: 英文
• DOI: 10.1038/cr.2012.136

摘要

In eukaryotic cells,DNA is packaged into chromatin whose basic units are nucleosomes.A nucleosome is consisted of 147 bp nucleotides wrapped around a histone octamer,which is composed of two copies each ofhistone H2A,H2B,H3 and H4.Both DNA and histones are subjected to covalent chemical modifications,which impact chromatin organization and function.Recent mass spectrometry analysis identified more than a dozen different types of post-translational modifications on histone tails [1].Among them,lysine methylation is one of the most extensively studied modifications,including histone H3 lysine 4 (H3K4),H3K9,H3K27,H3K36 and H4K20.Methylation at these lysine residues has been shown to play a role in transcription,DNA recombination and repair.