The past determines the future: sugar source history and transcriptional memory

Abstract Transcriptional reinduction memory is a phenomenon whereby cells “remember” their transcriptional response to a previous stimulus such that subsequent encounters with the same stimulus can result in altered gene expression kinetics. Chromatin structure is thought to play a role in certain transcriptional memory mechanisms, leading to questions as to whether and how memory can be actively maintained and inherited to progeny through cell division. Here we summarize efforts towards dissecting chromatin-based transcriptional memory inheritance of GAL genes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We focus on methods and analyses of GAL (as well as MAL and INO) memory in single cells and discuss the challenges in unraveling the underlying mechanisms in yeast and higher eukaryotes.

Download Full-text

Recent advances in siRNA delivery

BioMolecular Concepts ◽

10.1515/bmc-2015-0019 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 6 (5-6) ◽

pp. 321-341 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Can Sarisozen ◽

Giuseppina Salzano ◽

Vladimir P. Torchilin

Keyword(s):

Gene Expression ◽

Mammalian Cells ◽

Sirna Delivery ◽

Potential Treatment ◽

Small Interfering Rnas ◽

Altered Gene Expression ◽

The Past ◽

Clinical Reality ◽

Recent Advances ◽

Altered Gene

AbstractIn the 1990s an unexpected gene-silencing phenomena in plants, the later called RNA interference (RNAi), perplexed scientists. Following the proof of activity in mammalian cells, small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) have quickly crept into biomedical research as a new powerful tool for the potential treatment of different human diseases based on altered gene expression. In the past decades, several promising data from ongoing clinical trials have been reported. However, despite surprising successes in many pre-clinical studies, concrete obstacles still need to be overcome to translate therapeutic siRNAs into clinical reality. Here, we provide an update on the recent advances of RNAi-based therapeutics and highlight novel synthetic platforms for the intracellular delivery of siRNAs.

Download Full-text

Molecular and Microscopic Analysis of Altered Gene Expression in Transgenic and Gene Targeted Mice

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100162521 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 54 ◽

pp. 12-13

Author(s):

W. K. Jones ◽

J. Robbins

Keyword(s):

Gene Expression ◽

Pulmonary Veins ◽

Microscopic Analysis ◽

Mouse Tissue ◽

Adult Heart ◽

Heavy Chains ◽

Altered Gene Expression ◽

Altered Gene ◽

Pulmonary Myocardium

Two myosin heavy chains (MyHC) are expressed in the mammalian heart and are differentially regulated during development. In the mouse, the α-MyHC is expressed constitutively in the atrium. At birth, the β-MyHC is downregulated and replaced by the α-MyHC, which is the sole cardiac MyHC isoform in the adult heart. We have employed transgenic and gene-targeting methodologies to study the regulation of cardiac MyHC gene expression and the functional and developmental consequences of altered α-MyHC expression in the mouse.We previously characterized an α-MyHC promoter capable of driving tissue-specific and developmentally correct expression of a CAT (chloramphenicol acetyltransferase) marker in the mouse. Tissue surveys detected a small amount of CAT activity in the lung (Fig. 1a). The results of in situ hybridization analyses indicated that the pattern of CAT transcript in the adult heart (Fig. 1b, top panel) is the same as that of α-MyHC (Fig. 1b, lower panel). The α-MyHC gene is expressed in a layer of cardiac muscle (pulmonary myocardium) associated with the pulmonary veins (Fig. 1c). These studies extend our understanding of α-MyHC expression and delimit a third cardiac compartment.

Download Full-text