In this episode of the Epigenetics Podcast, we caught up with Sir Adrian Bird, Buchanan Professor of Genetics at the University of Edinburgh to talk about his work on CpG islands, DNA methylation, and the role of DNA methylation in human diseases.
Adrian Bird has been a pioneer in studying the CpG dinucleotide sequence. The CpG dinucleotide is distributed genome-wide and has several properties expected of a genomic signaling module. The influence of CpG signaling on prozesses like development, differentiation, and disease is hardly understood. Adrian Bird's work indicates that proteins that bind methylated CpGs recruit chromatin modifying enzymes to promote gene silencing. On the other hand, proteins that bind unmethylated CpGs lead to the formation of active, open chromatin. These results suggest that CpGs have a gobal effect on genome activity.
In neurons MeCP2 is almost as abundant as histones and is probably one of the best studied Proteins that bind to methyl-CpGs. Children who lack MeCP2 acquire serious neurological disorders, in particular Rett Syndrome. Rett Syndrome is caused by defects of a single gene, which lead to the opportunity to study its molecular mechanism, which involves MeCP2 in detail. Adrian Bird created a mouse model of Rett Syndrome which has lead to the discovery that reintroducing a functional MeCP2 gene in mice can lead to a "curation" of the symptoms.
In this interview, podcast host Stefan Dillinger and Adrian discuss CpG islands, DNA methylation, and how the discovery of MeCP2 lead to the discovery of a possible treatment of Rett Syndrome.
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The Role of Hat1p in Chromatin Assembly (Mark Parthun)
The Impact of Paternal Diet on Offspring Metabolism (Upasna Sharma)
H3K36me3, H4K16ac and Cryptic Transcription in Ageing (Weiwei Dang)
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BET Proteins and Their Role in Chromosome Folding and Compartmentalization (Kyle Eagen)
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H3K79 Methylation, DOT1L, and FOXG1 in Neural Development (Tanja Vogel)
Function of Insulators in 3D Genome Folding (Maria Gambetta)
Contribution of the Estrogen Receptor to Breast Cancer Progression (Jason Carroll)
Inheritance of Transcriptional Memory by Mitotic Bookmarking (Sheila Teves)
Differential Methylated Regions in Autism Spectrum Disorders (Janine La Salle)
DNA Damage in Longevity and Ageing (Björn Schumacher)
The Impact of Chromatin Modifiers on Disease Development and Progression (Capucine van Rechem)
Long-Range Transcriptional Control by 3D Chromosome Structure (Luca Giorgetti)
Transgenerational Inheritance and Epigenetic Imprinting in Plants (Mary Gehring)
When is a Peak a Peak? (Claudio Cantù)
Analysis of 3D Chromatin Structure Using Super-Resolution Imaging (Alistair Boettiger)
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