Center for Epigenetics and Metabolism, School of Medicine, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697, USA.
Cell. 2012 Jan 20;148(1-2):24-8. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2012.01.001.
Chromatin-modifying enzymes have long been proposed to be the authors of an epigenetic language, but the origin and meaning of the messages they write in chromatin are still mysterious. Recent studies suggesting that the effects of diet can be passed on epigenetically to offspring add weight to the idea that histones act as metabolic sensors, converting changes in metabolism into stable patterns of gene expression. The challenge will now be to understand how localized fluctuations in levels of metabolites control chromatin modifiers in space and time, translating a dynamic metabolic state into a histone map.
染色质修饰酶长期以来一直被认为是表观遗传语言的作者，但它们在染色质中书写的信息的起源和意义仍然是神秘的。最近的研究表明，饮食的影响可以通过表观遗传传递给后代，这进一步支持了组蛋白作为代谢传感器的观点，即将代谢变化转化为稳定的基因表达模式。现在的挑战是要了解代谢物水平的局部波动如何在空间和时间上控制染色质修饰物，将动态代谢状态转化为组蛋白图谱。
