sulfur mustard (sm, bis- (2-chloroethyl) sulphide) is a chemical warfare agent that causes dna alkylation, protein modification and membrane damage. sm can trigger several molecular pathways involved in inflammation and oxidative stress, which cause cell necrosis and apoptosis, and loss of cells integrity and function. epigenetic regulation of gene expression is a growing research topic and is ...

Histone modifications play a key role in regulating transcription and thus ultimately regulate cellular development and differentiation. To understand how histone modifications influence normal development and disease states, a global catalogue of histone modifications and modifying enzymes in normal and disease states is necessary. The first such systematic mapping experiments using the recent...

Chromatin states can be distinguished by differential covalent modifications of histones or by utilization of histone variants. Chromatin associated with transcriptionally active loci becomes enriched for histones with particular lysine modifications and accumulates the H3.3 histone variant, the substrate for replication-independent nucleosome assembly. However, studies of modifications at part...

DNA methylation, histone modifications, and the chromatin structure are profoundly altered in human cancers. The silencing of cancer-related genes by these epigenetic regulators is recognized as a key mechanism in tumor formation. Recent findings revealed that DNA methylation and histone modifications appear to be linked to each other. However, it is not clearly understood how the formation of ...

Histone modifications are key components of chromatin packaging but whether they constitute a 'code' has been contested. We believe that the central issue is causality: are histone modifications responsible for differences between chromatin states, or are differences in modifications mostly consequences of dynamic processes, such as transcription and nucleosome remodeling? We find that inferenc...

The connections between various nuclear processes and specific histone posttranslational modifications are dependent to a large extent on the acquisition of those modifications after histone synthesis. The reestablishment of histone posttranslational modifications after S phase is especially critical for H3K9 and H3K27 trimethylation, both of which are linked with epigenetic memory and must be ...

Chromatin is the physiological carrier of not only genetic information, encoded in the DNA, but also of epigenetic information including DNA methylation and histone modifications. As such histone modifications are involved in many aspects of nuclear processes including gene regulation and chromosome segregation. Recently, a 'histone code' hypothesis was put forward to explain how patterns of hi...

Cancer is characterized by aberrant patterns of expression of multiple genes. These major shifts in gene expression are believed to be due to not only genetic but also epigenetic changes. The epigenetic changes are communicated through chemical modifications, including histone modifications. However, it is unclear whether the binding of histone-modifying proteins to genomic regions and the plac...

Histone post-transcriptional modifications play essential roles in regulation of all DNA related processes. Among them, histone ubiquitination has been discovered for more than three decades. However, its functions are still less well understood than other histone modifications such as methylation and acetylation. In this review, we will summarize our current understanding of histone ubiquitina...