Epigenetic silencing in transgenic plants

Epigenetic silencing in transgenic plants

Epigenetic silencing is a natural phenomenon in which the expression of genes is regulated through modifications of DNA, RNA, or histone proteins. It is a mechanism for defending host genomes against the effects of transposable elements and viral infection, and acts as a modulator of expression of duplicated gene family members and as a silencer of transgenes. A major breakthrough in understand...

Epigenetic phenomena: Epigenetic phenomena: Paramutation and gene silencing in plants

Gene silencing is a widespread phenomenon in plants, and can affect endogenous genes as well as transgenes integrated into the genome [1,2]. Gene silencing can be induced by interactions between related genes, and one of the best-known examples is named paramutation. Paramutation is the directed heritable alteration of one allele following exposure to another allele in a heterozygote [3]. Examp...

Gene interactions and epigenetic variation in transgenic plants

Confocal scanning light microscopy, which has revolutionized approaches to reconstructing three-dimensional images of living cells, has a new cousin: confocal Raman spectroscopy. This technique combines the use of confocal optics, to narrow detection to an extremely small volume (1 ttm3), with the ability of Raman spectroscopy to distinguish chemical bonds. Confocal Raman spectroscopy thus prom...

Epigenetic gene silencing in cancer.

Epigenetic regulation in plants.

The study of epigenetics in plants has a long and rich history, from initial descriptions of non-Mendelian gene behaviors to seminal discoveries of chromatin-modifying proteins and RNAs that mediate gene silencing in most eukaryotes, including humans. Genetic screens in the model plant Arabidopsis have been particularly rewarding, identifying more than 130 epigenetic regulators thus far. The di...