Cavalieri Vincenzo, Spinelli Giovanni
Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Functional Genomics, Department of Biological, Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technologies (STEBICEF), University of Palermo, Viale delle Scienze Edificio 16, 90128, Palermo, Italy.
Zebrafish Laboratory, Advanced Technologies Network (ATeN) Center, University of Palermo, Viale delle Scienze Edificio 18, 90128, Palermo, Italy.
Epigenetics Chromatin. 2017 Oct 5;10(1):46. doi: 10.1186/s13072-017-0154-0.
It is widely accepted that the epigenome can act as the link between environmental cues, both external and internal, to the organism and phenotype by converting the environmental stimuli to phenotypic responses through changes in gene transcription outcomes. Environmental stress endured by individual organisms can also enforce epigenetic variations in offspring that had never experienced it directly, which is termed transgenerational inheritance. To date, research in the environmental epigenetics discipline has used a wide range of both model and non-model organisms to elucidate the various epigenetic mechanisms underlying the adaptive response to environmental stimuli. In this review, we discuss the advantages of the zebrafish model for studying how environmental toxicant exposures affect the regulation of epigenetic processes, especially DNA methylation, which is the best-studied epigenetic mechanism. We include several very recent studies describing the state-of-the-art knowledge on this topic in zebrafish, together with key concepts in the function of DNA methylation during vertebrate embryogenesis.
人们普遍认为，表观基因组可以作为外部和内部环境线索与生物体及表型之间的联系，通过基因转录结果的变化将环境刺激转化为表型反应。个体生物体所承受的环境压力也会在从未直接经历过这种压力的后代中强制产生表观遗传变异，这被称为跨代遗传。迄今为止，环境表观遗传学领域的研究已经使用了广泛的模式生物和非模式生物，以阐明对环境刺激的适应性反应背后的各种表观遗传机制。在这篇综述中，我们讨论了斑马鱼模型在研究环境毒物暴露如何影响表观遗传过程调控方面的优势，特别是DNA甲基化，这是研究最为深入的表观遗传机制。我们纳入了几项最新研究，这些研究描述了斑马鱼在这一主题上的最新知识，以及脊椎动物胚胎发育过程中DNA甲基化功能的关键概念。
