Be sure to check this recent Correspondance over at Nature expressing reservations regarding a recent Editorial on the International Human Epigenome Consortium.
I've commented before on the loose use of the word "Epigenetics" [What is Epigenetics? An operational definition], so I found this quote particularly interesting:
The authors also direct the reader to a letter by eight prominent scientists expressing serious reservations about the scientific basis of the epigenome project (which you can access here)I've commented before on the loose use of the word "Epigenetics" [What is Epigenetics? An operational definition], so I found this quote particularly interesting:
With respect to 'epigenomics', we wish to stress that chromatin 'marks' and local chemical modifications of DNA, such as methylation, are the consequences of DNA-sequence-specific interactions of proteins (and RNA) that recruit modifying enzymes to specific targets. They are thus directly dependent on the genomic sequence. Such marks are the effects of sequence-specific regulatory interactions, not the causes of cell-type-specific gene expression.
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