Abstract: eLife digest Gene expression in eukaryotic cells can be controlled in a number of different ways, including various epigenetic mechanisms that do not involve making changes to DNA sequences that define the genes themselves. A well-known epigenetic mechanism for silencing genes in vertebrates is DNA methylation—the addition of a methyl group (CH3) to cytosine, which is one of the four bases found in the DNA. Methylation is thought to silence genes by preventing transcription factors from binding to the DNA, and also by recruiting proteins that...
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Topics: 
Genetics
Computational biology
Cell biology