EPIGENETICS MODIFICATION

Musa Hassan
 What is Epigenetics Modifications?

• The term epigenetics was first used by

Conrad Waddington in 1942.
• Epigenetics is defined as the study of
heritable changes in gene expression
without a change in DNA sequence.
• Chemical compounds that are added to
single genes can regulate their activity;
these modifications are known as
epigenetic changes.
 Epigenome
• A genome is an organism complete set of
DNA.
• DNA holds the instructions for building the
proteins that carry out a variety of functions in
a cell.
• The epigenome is the set of chemical
modifications to the DNA and DNA-
associated proteins in the cell, which alter
gene expression, and are heritable (through
meiosis and mitosis).
• The epigenome is made up of chemical
compounds and proteins that can attach to
DNA and direct such actions as turning genes
on or off, controlling the production of
proteins in particular cells.
• When epigenomic compounds attach to DNA
and modify its function, they are said to have
"marked" the genome.
 Types of epigenetic modification

• There are two main types of epigenetic modification:

• 1. DNA methylation, and
• 2. Histone modifications
 DNA Methylation
• DNA methylation is an epigenetic
mechanisms used by the cells to control
gene expression.
• DNA methylation is a process by which
methyl groups are added to the DNA
molecule.
• Methylation can change the activity of a
DNA segment without changing the
sequence.
• It occurs in the cells of fungi, plants, non
vertebrates and vertebrates.
 Effect of DNA Methylation
• The main role of DNA
methylation is to silence
gene expression.
Histone modifications
 Histone modifications
• There are multiple types of histone modifications which are catalysed by a number
of enzyme families.
• The most well characterised modifications include acetylation and methylation of
histones H3 and H4 .
• The modifications directly alter the DNA-protein interactions to change how
chromatin is structured which will alter the ability for a gene to be transcribed and
expressed.
 Histone acetylation
• Histones are proteins that organize
chromatin into nucleosomes.
• Acetylation is performed by histone
acetyltransferases (HATs) which add an
acetyl group to lysine amino acids
(which are positively charged) in this
histone tail which acts to mask the
positive charge.
• This causes loosening of chromatin to
promote gene activation.
 Histone methylation
• Methylation can occur on lysine or
arginine amine acids and can occur in
mono-, di- or tri-methylation events
by histone methyltransferases. This
mark does not substantially alter the
charge of amino acids and can be
associated with both gene activation
and inactivation.