Impact of chromosomal organization on epigenetic drift and domain stability revealed by physics-based simulations.

ABSTRACT: We examine the relationship between the size of domains of epigenetic marks and the stability of those domains using our theoretical model that captures the physical mechanisms governing the maintenance of epigenetic modifications. We focus our study on histone H3 lysine-9 trimethylation, one of the most common and consequential epigenetic marks with roles in chromatin compaction and gene repression. Our model combines the effects of methyl spreading by methyltransferases and chromatin segregation into heterochromatin and euchromatin because of preferential heterochromatin protein 1 (HP1) binding. Our model indicates that, although large methylated domains are passed successfully from one chromatin generation to the next, small alterations to the methylation sequence are not maintained dur

SUBMITTER: Wakim JG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8633838 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature