The Role of Epigenetic Mechanisms in the Regulation of Gene Expression in the Nervous System

• Published in: The Journal of neuroscience Vol. 36; no. 45; pp. 11427 - 11434
• Main Authors: Cholewa-Waclaw, Justyna, Bird, Adrian, von Schimmelmann, Melanie, Schaefer, Anne, Yu, Huimei, Song, Hongjun, Madabhushi, Ram, Tsai, Li-Huei
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Society for Neuroscience 09-11-2016
• Subjects: Animals; Brain - physiology; Epigenesis, Genetic - genetics; Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental - genetics; Humans; Models, Genetic; Nerve Tissue Proteins - genetics; Neurons - physiology; Symposium and Mini-Symposium; DNA methylation; MeCP2; polycomb repressive complex; topoisomerase II; DNA double strand breaks
• ISSN: 0270-6474; 1529-2401
• DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.2492-16.2016

Neuroepigenetics is a newly emerging field in neurobiology that addresses the epigenetic mechanism of gene expression regulation in various postmitotic neurons, both over time and in response to environmental stimuli. In addition to its fundamental contribution to our understanding of basic neuronal physiology, alterations in these neuroepigenetic mechanisms have been recently linked to numerous neurodevelopmental, psychiatric, and neurodegenerative disorders. This article provides a selective review of the role of DNA and histone modifications in neuronal signal-induced gene expression regulation, plasticity, and survival and how targeting these mechanisms could advance the development of future therapies. In addition, we discuss a recent discovery on how double-strand breaks of genomic DNA mediate the rapid induction of activity-dependent gene expression in neurons.