Diet alters epigenetic modifications [Hass et al. 1993; Chung et al. 2012].

DNA methylation patterns change with age in mice, rats and humans [Salpea et al. 2012].

DNA methylation and histone acetylation are related; when DNA is methylated, nearby histones are deacetylated, resulting in inhibition of transcription and vice versa.

References

Hass BS, Hart RW, Lu MH, Lyn-Cook BD (1993) Effects of caloric restriction in animals on cellular function, oncogene expression, and DNA methylation in vitro. Mutation research 295: 281–289.

Chung KW, Kim DH, Park MH, Choi YJ, Kim ND, et al. (2012) Recent advances in calorie restriction research on aging. Experimental gerontology. doi:10.1016/j.exger.2012.11.007.

Salpea P, Russanova VR, Hirai TH, Sourlingas TG, Sekeri-Pataryas KE, et al. (2012) Postnatal development- and age-related changes in DNA-methylation patterns in the human genome. Nucleic acids research 40: 6477–6494.

Tags: chromatin