How a nutrient, glutamine, can control gene programs in cells
The 200 different types of cells in the body all start with the same DNA genome. To differentiate into families of bone cells, muscle cells, blood cells, neurons and the rest, differing gene programs have to be turned on or off. Revealing the intricate ways this is done is one of the great goals of biomedical research, especially because dysregulation of gene programs underlies diseases like cancer and those caused by destructive inflammation. While some general influences of cellular metabolism on gene control are known -- such as the fact that glutamine metabolism by embryonic stem cells influences differentiation and causes some epigenetic changes in the DNA, as well as in the proteins that compact or unravel genomic DNA -- a major gap in current knowledge is how such broad epigenetic events are precisely translated into specific differentiation gene programs. A research team, led by first author and University of Alabama at Birmingham graduate student Danielle Chisolm and...