I'm looking for suggestions for papers to start from (or links to heated blog debates) in researching the evolution of thought over the last few decades regarding the causal role of histone modifications and DNA methylation in the regulation of gene expression. Ie, are these epigenetic marks merely left as traces of the true causal agents (TFs and small RNAs) or do they play a more causal role in regulating and perpetuating levels of gene expression?
These epigenetic marks do play a key role in regulating the expression of a gene. If you look at the papers which have studies the promoter of PTEN, estrogen receptor-alpha and hTERT genes, you will see there is a close link between epigenetic marks and promoter modification of these key genes. Thanks. Rishabh.
There is most certainly a link but I'm interested in how all the pieces fit together. Are histone modifications and DNA methylation just the downstream result of transcription factor activity or do they play a more active/casual role in the control of gene expression? The field seems to have shifted in its opinion on the matter. I've found some great papers of the key findings that have lead to this shift but I'm wondering if there are some perspectives pieces out there on the topic.
MicroRNAs are also involved in the regulation of some genes at TF level to activate or suppress some genes. CpG methylation in Gene promoter region also playing a vital role in gene regulation. All these processes are done in a coordinated manner.
The evidence for regulation of gene expression is much stronger for histone modifications (not all) than for DNA methylation. Hypomethylation features are 'set' in early development but are likely to represent a permissive state in differentiated tissues upon which histone modifications act to regulated gene expression.
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