Genes constitute only a small proportion of the total mammalian genome, and the precise
control of their expression in the presence of an overwhelming background of noncoding …

It has been nearly 40 y since it was suggested that genomic methylation patterns could be
transmitted via maintenance methylation during S phase and might play a role in the …

In most higher organisms, DNA is modified after synthesis by the enzymatic conversion of
many cytosine residues to 5-methylcytosine. For several years, control of gene activity by …

Epigenetic mechanisms modulate genome function by writing, reading and erasing
chromatin structural features. These have an impact on gene expression, contributing to the …

Mammalsinherittwo completesets ofchro-mosomes from their parents and thus two copies of
every autosomal gene. Normally both copies are expressed, but, in a minority of cases, a …

Specific sequences are designated for de novo DNA methylation at CpG dinucleotides in
mammalian germ cells. The result is the long-term transcriptional silencing of the methylated …

Epigenetics is the study of heritable changes in gene expression that occur without a
change in DNA sequence. Epigenetic phenomena have major economic and medical …

DNA methylation is a major epigenetic modification of the genome that regulates crucial
aspects of its function. Genomic methylation patterns in somatic differentiated cells are …

In an ideal world, biological processes would be understood at the molecular level by first
identifying all the participating components and then by deducing their roles in the system …

Epigenetic modifications of DNA such as methylation are important for genome function
during development and in adults. DNA methylation has central importance for genomic …