By Stefan Kubicek | March 1, 2011

Epigenetic events regulate the activities of genes without changing the DNA sequence. Different genes are expressed depending on the methyl-marks attached to DNA itself and by changes in the structure and/or composition of chromatin. The main components of chromatin are histones (in bundles of eight units) around which 146 base-pairs of DNA are wound like a thread around a spool, forming a structure called the nucleosome. There are various epigenetic mechanisms that can affect the nucleosome: chemical modification (via molecular additions to histone tails or DNA), a change its positioning on DNA (via chromatin remodeling proteins), or a variation in histone subtypes.

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