Gene regulator in brain's executive hub tracked across lifespan – methylation epigenetics - NIH

[Guest guest]

For Immediate Release

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Contact:

Jules Asher

NIMH press office

Gene regulator in brain's executive hub tracked across lifespan ?

NIH study

Mental illness suspect genes are among the most environmentally

responsive

For the first time, scientists have tracked the activity, across the

lifespan, of an environmentally responsive regulatory mechanism that

turns genes on and off in the brain's executive hub. Among key findings

of the study by National Institutes of Health scientists: genes

implicated in schizophrenia and autism turn out to be members of a

select club of genes in which regulatory activity peaks during an

environmentally-sensitive critical period in development. The mechanism,

called DNA methylation, abruptly switches from off to on within the

human brain's prefrontal cortex during this pivotal transition from

fetal to postnatal life. As methylation increases, gene expression slows

down after birth....

“This new study reminds us that genetic sequence is only part of the

story of development. Epigenetics links nurture and nature, showing us

when and where the environment can influence how the genetic sequence is

read,” said NIMH director R. Insel, M.D.....

http://www.nih.gov/news/health/feb2012/nimh-02.htm