Epigenetic Technologies Flashcards
What is the definition of Epigenetics?
Chemical modifications to the DNA and DNA-associated structures that do not change the DNA sequence, but can regulate gene expression and can be inherited across cell division
What are two most commonly studied epigenetic mechanisms?
DNA methylation
Histone modifications
What are other epigenetic mechanisms?
‣ Non-coding RNA-mediated gene-silencing
‣ Transcription-factor binding
‣ RNA modifications
‣ Mechanisms involved in generating and maintaining heritable chromatin structure and attachment to the nuclear matrix.
How do epigenetic changes affect gene expression?
Regulate chromatin structure
What are two chromatin structures?
Euchromatin: Relaxed DNA. Loosely organised chromatin thus many transcription factors are able to bind to the DNA and initiate transcription
Heterochromatin: Supercoiled DNA. Tightly packaged.
What are three epigenetic processes?
- DNA methylation: Methyl groups attached to the CPG islands regulate gene activity
- Histone modifications: Groups attached to histone tails determine activity of DNA wrapped around them
- Chromatin remodelling: Chromatin remodelling makes certain regions of the DNA available for transcription
What are three ways in which non coding RNA mediated gene silencing can occur?
MicroRNAs
Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNA)
Proteins and enzymes involved in how chromatin is attached to nuclear lamina
What are the key epigenetic modifications in gene regulation?
DNA methylation
Histone marks
Chromatin structure
Promoter & Enhancer binding
Non-coding RNAs
RNA modifications
Position relative to nuclear lamina
Chromatin interactions
How many histone modifications/marks exist?
Up to 20 different marks have been assayed genome-wide to date and are available within publicly available resources
How are known histone modifications assayed?
What is this method also used for?
Chromatin Immunoprecipitation followed by Sequencing (ChIP-seq) is the main approach used to detect known (e.g. H3K4me1) histone modifications genome-wide
Also used for detection of Transcription Factor binding Chromatin
How are novel histone modifications detected?
Mass-Spectrometry
How is ChIP sequencing pursued?
Fragment sample
Add antibody
Immunoprecipitation
Sequence
Analysis
What is the main approach used to detect ‘open’ vs closed chromatic regions genome wide/ chromatin accessibility assay?
DNase I hypersensitive sites sequencing (DNAse- seq)
What steps are involved in DNAse-seq?
Fragment sample
Immunoprecipitation
Sequence
Analysis
What other methods are used to estimate chromatin accessibility and exact nucleosome position?
FAIRE-seq (Formaldehyde-Assisted Isolation of Regulatory Elements) is another approach to detect chromatin ‘openness’ conformation
ATAC-seq (Assay for Transposase-Accessible Chromatin using sequencing) also assesses chromatin accessibility
MNase-seq (Micrococcal nuclease (MNase)-assisted isolation of nucleosomes sequencing) is used to establish where nucleosomes are positioned
What is the main approach used to detect gene expression levels genome-wide?
RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq)
What is used for detection of RNA-based epigenetic changes?
RNA-seq
What detects absolute expression levels, novel transcripts, alternative splicing, intron/exon boundaries, SNP variants, but can have transcript-length and reference-mapping bias.
RNA-seq