The term ‘epigenetics’ was derived from ‘outside conventional genetics’. Now epigenetics is used to describe changes in gene activity and expression, and also stable, long-term alterations in the transcriptional potential of a cell that are not necessarily heritable. The main epigenetic processes influence transgene expression patterns and alter DNA–protein interactions, which include transgene localization, cytosine methylation of the DNA, post-translational modification (PTM) of histones and modification of transcriptional proteins.
Epigenetics and diseases
The heart of epigenetic control is to organize DNA into chromatin, in which DNA wrapped around histone proteins H2A, H2B, H3, and H4 and posttranslational modifications of the core histones occur. Each step of organization may provide sophisticated layers of regulation with potentially profound implications ranging from the maintenance of cell fate during cellular differentiation in development to the turning on or off of tumor suppressors or oncogenes in cancer. Several techniques are now available in epigenetic studies such as ChIP-seq, in which an antibody interacts to a specific histone modification or other DNA-binding protein of interest.
Fig. 1 Epigenetic mechanisms (from wiki).
Post-translational modifications (PTMs) of histone proteins play key roles in epigenetics regulation. Antibodies to histone PTMs are critical components in epigenetics investigation. It is fair to say that much of the advancement in our understanding of chromatin modifications and chromatin structure would not have been possible without the development of post-translational modification-specific antibodies. Now more than 1000 different antibodies raised against histone PTMs are commercially available.
Fig. 2 Major epigenetic modifications.[4]
Creative Biolabs has developed various recombinant antibodies involved in epigenetics research, which have high specificity and affinity. The recombinant antibodies performed well in common epigenetics applications, such as chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP), ChIP-chip, ChIP-seq, immunostaining and immunoblotting. For more details of our antibodies and their validated applications, please target specific product.
For more detailed information about our antibodies, please feel free to contact us.
