Chromatin and Epigenetics

Chromatin is a DNA and protein complex that creates chromosomes in eukaryotic cells' nuclei. Nuclear DNA is not found in loose strands; instead, it is heavily compressed and wrapped around nuclear proteins to fit inside the nucleus. There are two types of chromatin. Euchromatin is a less compacted type of chromatin that can be transcribed. The second type, known as heterochromatin, is severely compressed and rarely transcribed.

Heritable modifications in gene expression that do not entail changes to the underlying DNA sequence are referred to as epigenetics. Modifications in gene activity and expression are the most common epigenetic changes, although the phrase can also refer to any heritable phenotypic change. External or environmental influences may have an effect on cellular and physiological phenotypic features, or they may be a normal aspect of development. The phrase also refers to the changes themselves, which are functionally meaningful changes to the genome that do not involve a nucleotide sequence change.

• Chromatin Modification
• Epigenetic Reprogramming
• Development and Chromatin and Epigenetics
• Epigenetics and Chromatin Structure
• Epigenetic Regulation
• Different States of Chromatin
• Histone Modifications, RNA and Metabolism
• Transcriptional and Posttranscriptional Regulation
• Nuclear Architecture
• Chromatin and Its Variants in Disease