Decade-long search for clean-water living single-celled organism solves puzzle concerned with gene regulation
After an intrepid decade-long search, Johns Hopkins drug
scientists say they have found a new position for a pair of enzymes
The new findings, published Nov. 21 in Epigenetics &
Chromatin, may eventually help scientists understand disease
"Developing better expertise on the ways that enzymes affect
the activity of our genomes offers valuable insights into biology
new therapeutic techniques for diseases," says Sean
Taverna, Ph.D., associate professor of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences
The search began more than a decade ago, when Taverna
began searching for elements that would affect DNA activity in Tetrahymena
During the original observation, the research team noted a previously
unknown signal that the single-celled creature uses to
"mark
The mark's place is in histone proteins, which act like spools
that tightly wind the DNA, regularly turning genes off
In a follow-up update published in 2016, Taverna found that the
H3K23 location is conserved between Tetrahymena and mammals,
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