Cell Identity Breakthrough: MIT’s Revolutionary Genetic “Memories” Discovery

Cell Identity Breakthrough: MIT’s Revolutionary Genetic “Memories” Discovery

The MIT made an extraordinary revolutionary genetic memories-related discovery. Check out the latest reports about this below.

Revolutionary genetic memories discovery

A recent study conducted by MIT suggests that the 3D folding of the genome plays a crucial role in the ability of cells to store and pass on “memories” of which genes they should express.

Although every cell in the human body contains the same genetic instructions encoded in its DNA, each cell only expresses the genes that it needs to become a specific type of cell.

Chemical modifications to the proteins that decorate the DNA determine which genes get turned on or off.

However, when cells copy their DNA to divide, they lose about half of these modifications, which raises the question: how do cells retain the memory of what type of cell they are supposed to be?

A new study by MIT proposes a theoretical model that helps explain how memories are passed from generation to generation when cells divide.

The research team suggests that the 3D folding of a cell’s genome within its nucleus determines which parts of the genome will be marked by chemical modifications.

When a cell copies its DNA, the marks are partially lost, but the 3D folding allows the cell to easily restore the chemical marks needed to maintain its identity.

With each cell division, chemical marks allow the cell to restore the 3D folding of its genome. By juggling the memory between 3D folding and the marks, the memory can be preserved over hundreds of cell divisions.

“A key aspect of how cell types differ is that different genes are turned on or off. It’s very difficult to transform one cell type to another because these states are very committed,” says Jeremy Owen PhD ’22, the lead author of the study.

“What we have done in this work is develop a simple model that highlights qualitative features of the chemical systems inside cells and how they need to work in order to make memories of gene expression stable.”

Check out more details about this in the original post shared by SciTechDaily.

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