Disconnect between alcohol-induced alterations in chromatin structure and gene transcription in a mouse embryonic stem cell model of exposure

Alterations to chromatin structure induced by environmental insults have become an attractive explanation for the persistence of exposure effects into subsequent life stages. However, a growing body of work examining the epigenetic impact alcohol and other drugs of abuse exert consistently note a disconnect between induced changes in chromatin structure and patterns of gene transcription. Thus, an important question is whether perturbations in the ‘histone code’ induced by prenatal exposures to alcohol implicitly subvert gene expression, or if the hierarchy of cellular signaling networks driving development is such that they retain control over the transcriptional program.

Source: Alcohol - January 12, 2017 Category: Addiction Authors: Kylee J. Veazey, Haiqing Wang, Yudhishtar S. Behdi, William M. Skiles, Richard Cheng-An Chang, Michael C. Golding Source Type: research