Super-enhancers have been proposed to cluster in the nucleus when compared to other genomic elements. Le et al. found that super-enhancer clustering was rare and driven by non-specific interactions. P...

Back in the day you had to be rude in person – now you can do it anonymously from home

Larger vehicles crowd our roads and are far more dangerous to pedestrians. Let’s curb them before they do even more damage, says says transport commentator Christian Wolmar

Larger vehicles crowd our roads and are far more dangerous to pedestrians. Let’s curb them before they do even more damage, says says transport commentator Christian Wolmar

Background The first cell fate decisions in embryogenesis give rise to extraembryonic tissues, such as the yolk sac and placenta, which are essential for embryo survival. In mammals, extraembryonic cell types arising from these first lineage decisions show distinct DNA methylation patterning, including large partially methylated domains, gene body methylation and accumulation across developmental CpG island (CGI) promoters. Analysis of extraembryonic membranes beyond mammalian species has been limited. Using bisulphite-seq and RNA-seq, we comparatively define these epigenetic characteristics of extraembryonic tissues in both mouse and human. We then tested whether these features are conserved in the chicken extraembryonic membranes (EEMs) including the yolk sac, chorion and chorioallantoic membrane (CAM). Results Transcriptomic analysis revealed that embryonic day (E)4 yolk sac/chorion and E14 CAM express similar marker genes to the mouse chorionic trophoblast, supporting that the chicken chorionic ectoderm shares a ‘trophoblast-like’ cell identity. We find that partially methylated domains and transcription-linked gene body methylation patterning are highly conserved between mouse and human proliferative multipotent trophoblast cells but were not evident in the chicken EEMs. However, we find that methylation of CGIs associated with developmental genes was a conserved feature of mouse, human and chicken EEMs. Conclusions These findings support that features of the extraembryonic DNA methylation landscape have distinct underlying mechanisms. We find that only one feature is conserved across extant amniotes, suggesting distinct evolutionary pressures are associated with different features of EEM epigenetic landscape.

After a stellar career that began in the swimming pool as a 14-year-old before five Games hoovering up cycling golds, Britain’s Paralympic dame tells Donald McRae: ‘I want to put my energy into someth...

This study uses a precise and efficient clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) prime editing system to substitute lysine residues in histone H3, individually or in combinat...

Since the first high-resolution structures of recombinantly assembled nucleosomes, efforts have shifted towards understanding chromatin structure in a native context. Most of these efforts have focuse...

YouTube video by bdhendrich

Mace’s TRANS MICE Act is designed to end ‘radical transgender-related experiments on animals’. But is this all a stupid misunderstanding, asks Arwa Mahdawi

YouTube video by bdhendrich