An ambitious EC-funded research initiative on epigenetics advancing towards systems biology

Epigenetic mechanisms of gene regulation are important for normal development and disease. However, our understanding of the basic mechanisms of epigenome dynamics and inheritance is still limited. My lab is combining the development of quantitative assays with yeast genetics to put some of the key questions in the field to the test. We recently found that methylation of H3K79 by Dot1 does not seem to act as a memory mark in yeast. Instead, it is dynamic and acts as a timer for histone age or cell cycle progression. Histones themselves can also be dynamic. Using a novel tag-switch assay to simultaneously monitor old and new histones we found that histones undergo replication-independent turnover as well as lateral movements. Our findings suggest that in addition to histone modifying and demodifying enzymes the dynamics and inheritance of histones in replicating cells helps shape the epigenome.

Lab Members (on picture from left to right)

• Marit Terweij, MSc, PhD student
• Dr. Iris Stulemeijer, PhD, Post-Doc
• Hanneke Vlaming, MSc, PhD student
• Tibor van Welsem, BSc, lab manager
• Dr. Fred van Leeuwen, PhD, PI