• Journal of Life Science
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.616-620
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• 2011

Lysine residues of histone H3 and H4 are covalently modified in the chromatin of eukaryotic cells. Lysine 27 in histone H3 was acetylated (H3K27ac) or methylated at three levels; mono-, di-, and trimethylation (H3K27me1, H3K27me2, and H3K27me3). These modifications at H3K27 were related with gene transcription and/or chromatin structure in distinct patterns. Generally, H3K27ac and H3K27me1 were enriched in active chromatin, such as the locus control region or transcriptionally active genes, while transcriptionally inactive genes were highly marked by H3K27me2 and H3K27me3. These modifications appear to have been catalyzed by distinct histone-modifying enzymes. Recent studies suggest that the four kinds of modifications at H3K27 have inter-correlation in gene transcription or chromatin structure formation.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.22 no.11
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• pp.1587-1594
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• 2012

3C (chromatin conformation capture) is a technique to analyze chromatin organization in nuclei of eukaryotic cells. The procedure of 3C includes the formaldehyde treatment of cells to fix interactions between proteins and between proteins and DNA in chromatin, the digestion of fixed chromatin with restriction enzyme, and the ligation of fragmented DNA. The efficiency of DNA ligation represents proximity between DNA fragments in chromatin organization. Studies in the ${\beta}$-globin locus using 3C showed that the locus control region is in close proximity to the transcriptionally-active globin genes, indicating that chromatin organization has a role in transcriptional regulation of the genes. 3C has been advanced by combining with ChIP and genome-wide sequencing. This review presents the principle and procedure of the 3C technique, the chromatin organization of the ${\beta}$-globin locus explained by 3C, and advanced techniques based on 3C.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.57 no.4
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• pp.379-386
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• 2014

Chromatin is an instructive DNA structure that can widely respond to external signals. An important change of chromatin is the modifications of histone for this regulation. There are accumulating lists of these modifications and the complexity of their action is gradually understood. It is evident that histone modifications play important roles in most biological processes that are involved in the expression or repression of DNA. The surface of nucleosomes is susceptible to multiplicity of modifications. Chromatin modifications can play either by eliminating chromatin contacts or by recruiting non-histone proteins to chromatin. Many of these regulations seem to be epigenetically inherited. Thus, histone modifications are closely correlated with many fundamental biological processes in animal, plant and microbial kingdoms. Failures of histone modification lead, in general, to defective chromosome condensation or decondensation, impeding many biological functions including development, maturation, and protection against various diseases.

• Journal of Scientific & Technological Knowledge Infrastructure
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• s.23
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• pp.73-75
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• 2006

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.17 no.3 s.83
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• pp.381-385
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• 2007

Facilitates chromatin transcription (FACT) is a chromatin-specific elongation factor required for transcription of chromatin templates in vivo and in vitro. FACT consists of human homologue of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae Spt16/Cdc68 protein (hSpt16) and the high mobility group-1-like protein structure-specific recognition protein-1 (SSRP-1). Here we show that the protein level of hSpt16 is massively down-regulated in quiescent T98C cells using both immunofluorescence and western blot analysis. In contrast, we observe high level of the hspt16 expression in the proliferative T98G cells. Interestingly, the expression of SSRP-1 is not altered in both quiescent and proliferative states. Taken together, our findings implicate that the expression of hSpt16 is associated with the proliferative state and can be used as a proliferation marker.

• Vacuum Magazine
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.13-17
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• 2018

Phase transition is not unique to solid state systems or homogeneous molecular systems but it is also observed in highly heterogeneous biological systems. Phase transition and phase separation in cells are recently being found to be central to many biological functions by temporarily and locally controlling the storage and exchange of certain proteins and RNAs. There are also clues suggesting them to be playing pivotal roles in the spatial organization of chromosomes into topological domains and its time-dependent control. Here we introduce early efforts to explain at the molecular level how the spatiotemporal organization of chromosomes are programmed and modulated by the sequence and chemical modifications of the DNA. Continuing works may provide a physical framework to understand the molecular level control of chromosome structure and dynamics that determine the epigenetic state and the fate of the cells.

• Proceedings of the Korea Contents Association Conference
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• 2016.05a
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• pp.191-192
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• 2016

DNA 염기서열 자체에는 변화가 없으나 크로마틴의 변형을 통하여 유전자의 발현 양상이 변하는 현상을 후성유전이라 한다. 최근에 이런 후성유전학적 변이가 암 발생과 밀접한 연관이 있는 것으로 알려졌다. 본 연구에서는 암 관련 단백질과 암 관련 후성유전 단백질 상호작용 네트워크를 통하여 암과 후성 유전적 관계를 분석하고자 하였다. 먼저 상호작용 네트워크를 기반으로 허브에 해당하는 히스톤 변형 단백질 20개를 추출하였다. 추출한 20개 단백질을 KEGG pathway에 적용하여 암 관련 단백질과의 상관관계를 분석하였다. 암 관련 단백질 발현양상을 확인할 수 있는 Expression Atlas로부터 발현이 증가하거나 감소하는 단백질을 분류하고, 발현 정보를 KEGG pathway 위에 있는 단백질에 적용함으로써 후성유전학적 암 발생 기전을 도출하였다.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.219-222
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• 2021

In this study, we examined low molecular weight peptides using proteomics in order to identify their original proteins, derive their peptides, and determine the functions of the proteins in Tenebrio molitor, the mealworm (larvae, pupae, or adult) from which the peptides were extracted. Fifty-four proteins were finally identified through an analysis of proteome to derive the analyzed peptides. The proteins that induced low molecular weight peptides were identified to be the most abundant in adults only, and the next highest were derived from a group containing both adults and larva. However, other groups, including pupa, were detected to have a lower frequency of peptides. As a result of orthologous classification of the detected proteins, the general function prediction was only investigated at the highest frequency among the examined proteins. Proteins related to chromatin structure and dynamics were detected by their higher frequency among functional classes. The next highest frequency was shown by proteins related to amino acid transport and metabolism and carbohydrate transport and metabolism. Therefore, it is assumed that proteins correlated with chromatin, amino acid, and carbohydrate metabolisms are easily induced into low molecular weight peptides, and that their peptides could play a role as bioactive substances.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.181-188
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• 2011

Major depression is a devastating disorder of which lifetime prevalence rate is as high as up to 25% in general population. Although the etiology of the disorder is still poorly understood, it is generally accepted that both genetic and environmental factors are involved in the precipitation of depression. Stressful lifetime events are potent precipitating environmental factors for major depression and early-life stress is in particular an important element that predisposes individuals to major depression later in life. How environmental factors such as stress can make our neural networks susceptible to depression and how those factors leave long-lasting influences have been among the major questions in the field of depression research. Epigenetic regulations can provide a bridging mechanism between environmental factors and genetic factors so that these two factors can additively determine individual predispositions to major depression. Here we introduce epigenetic regulations as candidate mechanisms that mediate the integration of environmental adversaries with genetic predispositions, which may lead to the development of major depression, and summarize basic molecular events that underlie epigenetic regulations as well as experimental evidences that support the active role of epigenetic regulation in major depression.

• Maxillofacial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.302-309
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• 2008

Epigenetic is usually referring to heritable traits that do not involve changes to the underlying DNA sequence. DNA methylation is known to serve as cellular memory. and is one of the most important mechanism of epigenetic. DNA methylation is a covalent modification in which the target molecules for methylation in mammalian DNA are cytosine bases in CpG dinucleotides. The 5' position of cytosine is methylated in a reaction catalyzed by DNA methyltransferases; DNMTl, DNMT3a, and DNMT3b. There are two different regions in the context of DNA methylation: CpG poor regions and CpG islands. The intergenic and the intronic region is considered to be CpG poor, and CpG islands are discrete CpG-rich regions which are often found in promoter regions. Normally, CpG poor regions are usually methylated whereas CpG islands are generally hypomethylated. DNA methylation is involved in various biological processes such as tissue-specific gene expression, genomic imprinting, and X chromosome inactivation. In general. cancer cells are characterized by global genomic hypomethylation and focal hypermethylation of CpG islands, which are generally unmethylated in normal cells. Gene silencing by CpG hypermethylation at the promotors of tumor suppressor genes is probably the most common mechanism of tumor suppressor inactivation in cancer.