New to epigenetics - Need help (Mar/30/2008 )

Oh gosh, this is my first time posting in this subforum. I am usually in the molecular biology forum. Anyway, I just started my PhD project dealing with epigenetics. I need some help or recommendation on any textbooks on that?

I will be working on DNA methylation. I just read about some papers regarding it and CpG islands. Hypo and hypermethylation etc. I am no knowledge at all on Epigenetic studies.

Any book recommendation or online readings or important papers (basic preferred), that will be fantastic. I had searched some myself but i think it will be better to get some opinion from the experts.

Thanks!

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epigenetics can be a very interesting field of research, i'm sure you won't regret starting into it, you'll find out a lot of things are regulated by epigenetics (or at least that is the latest trend )

for cpg islands i'd recomend any review by Adrian Bird (he's the biggest in cpg islands), he works with mammals tho. there was a very interesting paper by Zhang in 2006 (a member of the Jacobsen lab) about genome wide methylation status in arabidopsis.

Cell. 2006 Sep 22;126(6):1025-8.
Genome-wide high-resolution mapping and functional analysis of DNA methylation in arabidopsis.
Zhang X, Yazaki J, Sundaresan A, Cokus S, Chan SW, Chen H, Henderson IR, Shinn P, Pellegrini M, Jacobsen SE, Ecker JR.

Curr Opin Genet Dev. 1995 Jun;5(3):309-14.
CpG islands and genes.
Cross SH, Bird AP.

i also liked this one a lot

Nucleic Acids Res. 2005 Jan 26;33(2):559-63. Print 2005.
Noncoding DNA, isochores and gene expression: nucleosome formation potential.
Vinogradov AE.

best of lucks in this area of uncertainty and especulation what organism will you be working with?

toejam

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Hi, If you are interested in human stuff with DNA methylation and are not so borring to be the 1,000,000 person doing hyper/hypo methylation studies in cancer... .( sorry you guys..., but it is boring.... ). But are more interesting in DNA methylation and complex phenotypes etc. etc. check the latest review by Feinberg in JAMA (2008). Very good. Or also good are the agouti article of Waterland in MCB or his review in Nature review genetics.

Greetings and lots of luck

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texbook: Epigenetics from Allis and Jenuwein
http://www.amazon.com/Epigenetics-C-David-...0549&sr=8-1

cheers

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hahaha, my boss should see that quote
also about agouti the work by emma whitelaw is interesting, more related to how methylation and repetitive elements affect gene expression.

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thanks the references! really helpful.

Just some questions,

are there plenty of groups working on epigenetics?
how is the impact on journals publication? can i publish well on that? a lil worried at the moment.

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there are some groups working on epigenetics, however the variety is wide, histone modifications, DNA methylation, siRNA, etc... just so you get an idea, on may 2007 there was a whole Nature insight on epigenetics. don't be worried, for sure there will be plenty of publications for the next 5 or more years on this field.

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thanks for ensuring.

just a question, is there anyone going to the epigenetics conference in berlin? On July I think

I am going definitely!

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You mean this? International Conference on Epigenetics of the DFG priority program SPP 1129 July 11th to 12th 2008

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yup... are you coming? Let me know!! perhaps we can meet up or something like that.

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