For modifications to be inherited through several generations, how can one study inheritance in-vitro? Also, is one cell division equal to a generation or should a passage be considered a generation? Textbooks on cell biology have a very ambiguous explanation, hence the question.
I think a bit more information may be useful. What toe of modification are you interested in, some histone PTMs are associated with transcription and are temporary, others appear during cell cycle. If you are interfered in true epigenetics marks ie ones that are maintained over time which ones? Do you want I induce them or remove then and follow them that way? Are you able to use chip or microscopy based methods to detect the PTM's?
By inheretence isn't just PTMs don't forget, you could track changes to the DNA bases and methylation.
One cell division is one generation, the problem comes in culture when some of your cells may have divided whilst others have not. But you could track populations arising from single cells to overcome this.
Try to consider, what marks are important to you, how will you induce them experimentally (and how will you remove stimulus to determine a true epigenetics hanger has taken place) and are good enough antibodies available?
Dr. Throne,
Thanks for your response. I'm trying to study inheritance of H3K27 me1,me2 and me3 marks. Wouldn't considering cell division as one generation be a little too ambiguous since, cell division that occurs in an organism will necessarily not be a generation. It would correlate to growth of the organism or proliferation of cells, wouldn't it?
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Biological Science
- Cell Biology