The epigenetic landscape of mammary gland development and functional differentiation.

ABSTRACT: Most of the development and functional differentiation in the mammary gland occur after birth. Epigenetics is defined as the stable alterations in gene expression potential that arise during development and proliferation. Epigenetic changes are mediated at the biochemical level by the chromatin conformation initiated by DNA methylation, histone variants, post-translational modifications of histones, non-histone chromatin proteins, and non-coding RNAs. Epigenetics plays a key role in development. However, very little is known about its role in the developing mammary gland or how it might integrate the many signalling pathways involved in mammary gland development and function that have been discovered during the past few decades. An inverse relationship between marks of closed (DNA methylat

SUBMITTER: Rijnkels M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3006238 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature