Epigenome effort makes its mark : Nature News

Published online 6 October 2010 | Nature 467, 646 (2010) | doi:10.1038/467646a

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Epigenome effort makes its mark
Major release of maps charting non-genetic modifications goes beyond DNA in a bid to beat complex human disease.

Alla Katsnelson

When the human genome was first fully sequenced, it was often described as the recipe for making a person. In reality, the genome is more like an entire cookbook that can produce hundreds of different cell types and a staggering range of cell functions depending on which genes are switched on and off. That switching is accomplished using a vast suite of epigenetic marks — molecular and structural modifications to DNA that do not change the underlying sequence but ensure that the right genes are expressed at the right time.

This week, the Roadmap Epigenomics Project, a US$170-million effort to identify and map those marks — known collectively as the human epigenome — begins its first comprehensive data release. Although it is not the only such effort worldwide (see Nature 463, 596–597; 2010), the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) epigenomics project is one of the most ambitious. The newly released data include more than 300 maps of epigenetic changes in 56 cell and tissue types, and represent a significant step towards the complete epigenome — the full picture of all the ways in which DNA can be modified, thus revealing the influence of epigenetics on cell development and its role in complex diseases (see graphic).

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Published online 6 October 2010 | Nature 467, 646 (2010) | doi:10.1038/467646a
Box: Epigenetic effects
http://www.nature.com/news/2010/101006/images/news467646a-i2.0.jpg

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Epigenome effort makes its mark : Nature News