Tag Archives: Folic Acid

Looking for Timebombs in the Genome — Retrotransposons & Epialleles

Posted on March 28, 2012 by Chris Womack

Buried in the mammal genome are more than a million virus-like stretches of DNA that epigenetic mechanisms work constantly to suppress — but once in a while, they slip up. If that happens nearby an important gene, it could mean physical changes, or even disease. And with bioinformatics and lab work, Muhammad Ekram and colleagues at Louisiana State University are trying to find out where these timebombs might be. They’ve found 143 candidates so far. They’re working with mice in Joomyeong Kim’s LSU lab, but the virus-like DNA sequences — retrotransposons — make up a large chunk of the genomes of most mammals. In mice, they’re about 40 percent of the genome, and in humans they account for more than … Continue reading →

Posted in Applications, DNA Methylation, Histone Modifications, Transcriptome | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Is Epigenetics the Basis of the ‘Autism Epidemic’?

Posted on May 1, 2011 by Nicole Kelesoglu

There is a proverb, said by the famous British historical literary critic, who published the first English Dictionary. “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” – Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) Today is the last day of April, which has been autism awareness month. I think it’s fitting to point out a provocative hypothesis of autism causation. Studies of folic acid metabolism and autism have been published over the past several years, by various authors. This recent paper King CR. A novel embryological theory of autism causation involving endogenous biochemicals capable of initiating cellular gene transcription. A possible link between twelve autism risk factors and the autism ‘epidemic’ Med hypotheses (2011) is interesting, since it presents a hypotheses that autism … Continue reading →

Posted in Animal Models, Autism, DNA Methylation, Developmental Biology, In Utero, Neuroscience | Tagged , , | 8 Comments