Stability and flexibility of epigenetic gene regulation in mammalian development
Abstract
During development, cells start in a pluripotent state, from which they can differentiate into many cell types, and progressively develop a narrower potential. Their gene-expression programmes become more defined, restricted and, potentially, 'locked in'. Pluripotent stem cells express genes that encode a set of core transcription factors, while genes that are required later in development are repressed by histone marks, which confer short-term, and therefore flexible, epigenetic silencing. By contrast, the methylation of DNA confers long-term epigenetic silencing of particular sequences - transposons, imprinted genes and pluripotency-associated genes - in somatic cells. Long-term silencing can be reprogrammed by demethylation of DNA, and this process might involve DNA repair. It is not known whether any of the epigenetic marks has a primary role in determining cell and lineage commitment during development.
- Publication:
-
Nature
- Pub Date:
- May 2007
- DOI:
- 10.1038/nature05918
- Bibcode:
- 2007Natur.447..425R