Search results for "Epigenetics"

Benzo[a]pyrene represses DNA repair through altered E2F1/E2F4 function marking an early event in DNA damage-induced cellular senescence

2020

AbstractTranscriptional regulation of DNA repair is of outmost importance for the restoration of DNA integrity upon genotoxic stress. Here we report that the potent environmental carcinogen benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P) activates a cellular DNA damage response resulting in transcriptional repression of mismatch repair (MMR) genes (MSH2, MSH6, EXO1) and of RAD51, the central homologous recombination repair (HR) component, ultimately leading to downregulation of MMR and HR. B[a]P-induced gene repression is caused by abrogated E2F1 signalling. This occurs through proteasomal degradation of E2F1 in G2-arrested cells and downregulation of E2F1 mRNA expression in G1-arrested cells. Repression of E2F1-me…

The Yeast RNA Polymerase II-associated Factor Iwr1p Is Involved in the Basal and Regulated Transcription of Specific Genes

2009

RNA polymerase II (RNA pol II) is a multisubunit enzyme that requires many auxiliary factors for its activity. Over the years, these factors have been identified using both biochemical and genetic approaches. Recently, the systematic characterization of protein complexes by tandem affinity purification and mass spectroscopy has allowed the identification of new components of well established complexes, including the RNA pol II holoenzyme. Using this approach, a novel and highly conserved factor, Iwr1p, that physically interacts with most of the RNA pol II subunits has been described in yeast. Here we show that Iwr1p genetically interacts with components of the basal transcription machinery …

Transcription of genes in the biosynthetic pathway for fumonisin mycotoxins is epigenetically and differentially regulated in the fungal maize pathog…

2012

ABSTRACT When the fungal pathogen Gibberella moniliformis (anamorph, Fusarium verticillioides ) colonizes maize and maize-based products, it produces class B fumonisin (FB) mycotoxins, which are a significant threat to human and animal health. FB biosynthetic enzymes and accessory proteins are encoded by a set of clustered and cotranscribed genes collectively named FUM, whose molecular regulation is beginning to be unraveled by researchers. FB accumulation correlates with the amount of transcripts from the key FUM genes, FUM1 , FUM21 , and FUM8 . In fungi in general, gene expression is often partially controlled at the chromatin level in secondary metabolism; when this is the case, the deac…

Sex-specific windows for high mRNA expression of DNA methyltransferases 1 and 3A and methyl-CpG-binding domain proteins 2 and 4 in human fetal gonads

2006

DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs) and 5-methyl-CpG-binding domain proteins (MBDs) are involved in the acquisition of parent-specific epigenetic modifications in human male and female germ cells. Reverse Northern blot analyses demonstrated sex-specific differences in mRNA expression for the maintenance DNMT1 and the de novo DNMT3A in developing testis and ovary. In fetal testis DNMT1 and DNMT3A expression peaked in mitotically arrested spermatogonia around 21 weeks gestation. In fetal ovary transcriptional upregulation of DNMT1 and DNMT3A occurred during a very brief period at 16 weeks gestation, when the oocytes proceeded through meiotic prophase. Fetal gonads showed several fold higher DNMT3A…

Role of Endogenous Oxidative DNA Damage in Carcinogenesis: What Can We Learn from Repair-Deficient Mice?

2002

Basal steady-state levels of oxidative DNA base modifications such as 7,8-dihydro-8-oxo-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-oxoG) are observed in all types of cells, most probably due to a continuous generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the cellular oxygen metabolism, and it has long been suspected that they might play an important role in the initiation of carcinogenesis. Experimental evidence for this assumption can be obtained by studying the effects of a modulation of the steady-state levels, either by in- or decreasing the generation of oxidative DNA damage, on spontaneous mutation rates and cancer incidence. However, clear answers have not yet been obtained by these strategies. It is still…

Heterochromatin Networks: Topology, Dynamics, and Function (a Working Hypothesis)

2021

Open systems can only exist by self-organization as pulsing structures exchanging matter and energy with the outer world. This review is an attempt to reveal the organizational principles of the heterochromatin supra-intra-chromosomal network in terms of nonlinear thermodynamics. The accessibility of the linear information of the genetic code is regulated by constitutive heterochromatin (CHR) creating the positional information in a system of coordinates. These features include scale-free splitting-fusing of CHR with the boundary constraints of the nucleolus and nuclear envelope. The analysis of both the literature and our own data suggests a radial-concentric network as the main structural…

Histone carbonylation occurs in proliferating cells

2012

12 páginas, 10 figuras (que no es encuentran en este documento, se pueden ver en: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0891584912000664)

The DNA cytosine methylome of Streptomyces coelicolor

2019

Oxidatively generated DNA base modifications: Relation to eustress and distress

2020

Abstract Oxidative stress at the DNA, i.e., the generation of DNA damage by endogenously produced reactive oxygen species, is of particular concern as it can give rise to mutations and thereby an increased cancer risk. On the other hand, there is accumulating evidence that oxidized DNA bases, in particular 8-oxo-7,8-dihydroguanine (8-oxoG), are actively generated in mammalian cells as epigenetic marks and are involved in transcriptional regulation. To better understand this apparent paradox, this chapter first describes the types and mechanisms of DNA damage under conditions of exogenous and endogenous oxidative stress. It then summarizes the indications that oxidatively generated DNA damag…

Experimental and theoretical studies on thymine photodimerization mediated by oxidatively generated DNA lesions and epigenetic intermediates.

2020

[EN] Interaction of nucleic acids with light is a scientific question of paramount relevance not only in the understanding of life functioning and evolution, but also in the insurgence of diseases such as malignant skin cancer and in the development of biomarkers and novel light-assisted therapeutic tools. This work shows that the UVA portion of sunlight, not absorbed by canonical DNA nucleobases, can be absorbed by 5-formyluracil (ForU) and 5-formylcytosine (ForC), two ubiquitous oxidatively generated lesions and epigenetic intermediates present in living beings in natural conditions. We measure the strong propensity of these molecules to populate triplet excited states able to transfer th…