Overview
- A Centre for Genomic Regulation team published a Nature Genetics paper on Monday reporting that the histone-mark signature that marks active genes is nearly identical across twelve diverse eukaryotes.
- The authors used a new pooled, barcoded chromatin-profiling protocol called iChIP2 to map twelve histone modifications in species ranging from amoebae and fungi to plants and a sea anemone.
- By contrast with the conserved activation signature, the molecular marks and combinations that silence genes and transposable elements differ strongly between major lineages.
- The paper links that silencing diversity to an evolutionary arms race in which host genomes and parasitic DNA such as transposons and endogenized viruses continually adapt to one another.
- The authors say iChIP2 can add regulatory context to large genome projects and that chromatin maps from diverse species may help researchers study diseases caused by faulty gene regulation, including cancer.