Epigenetics and sex differences in the brain: A genome-wide comparison of histone-3 lysine-4 trimethylation (H3K4me3) in male and female mice.

ABSTRACT: Many neurological and psychiatric disorders exhibit gender disparities, and sex differences in the brain likely explain some of these effects. Recent work in rodents points to a role for epigenetics in the development or maintenance of neural sex differences, although genome-wide studies have so far been lacking. Here we review the existing literature on epigenetics and brain sexual differentiation and present preliminary analyses on the genome-wide distribution of histone-3 lysine-4 trimethylation in a sexually dimorphic brain region in male and female mice. H3K4me3 is a histone mark primarily organized as 'peaks' surrounding the transcription start site of active genes. We microdissected the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis and preoptic area (BNST/POA) in adult male and female mice an

SUBMITTER: Shen EY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4329105 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature