Topic
Chemical modifications layered on DNA and histones that govern how genes are read without changing sequence.
A team including Arizona State biologists reports in Science that larger dogs lost an average of 35 percent more LINE1 methylation than smaller ones. The authors link that loss of control over jumping genes to the shorter lives of big breeds.
Reality
Kallel-led researchers found 287 gene changes unique to Jonathan, the 194-year-old Aldabra tortoise, touching DNA repair, inflammation, insulin and cancer. Because the baseline was just four other tortoises, the 287 are candidates to explain his slow ageing.
Perspective Coverage
10 publishersReality
EMBL Rome researchers timed mouse fertilization exactly and read single embryos over nine hours, finding that look-alike embryos hold very different RNA. With every embryo's age known, other labs gain a way to measure how far a treatment shifts genome activation in a mammal.
Reality
Exposome research has passed 830 PubMed papers this year, up from 261 in 2020, while its measurement standards are still being developed. Nature's feature argues that genomes need measured exposures to predict personal risk, though its evidence stops short of a test in patients.
Reality
Azusa Inoue's RIKEN team reports in Molecular Cell that a repressive histone mark carried over from the oocyte shapes placental growth. The lab is now tracking how that mark gets installed as mouse oocytes mature.
Reality