“The brain is a plastic tissue, and we know that learning and memory require various genes to be expressed,” says CAMH Senior Scientist Dr. Art Petronis, who is a senior author on the new study. “Our research has identified how the chemical 5-hmC may be involved in the epigenetic processes allowing this plasticity<\/strong>.” Dr. Petronis is head of the Krembil Family Epigenetics Laboratory in CAMH’s Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute.<\/p>\n 5-hmC is an epigenetic modification of DNA, and was discovered in humans and mice in 2009<\/strong>. DNA modifications are chemical changes to DNA. They flag genes to be turned “on” \u2013 signalling the genome to make a protein \u2013 or turned “off.” As the overwhelming majority of cells in an individual contain the same genetic code, this pattern of flags is what allows a neuron to use the same genome as a blood or liver cell, but create a completely different and specialized cellular environment.<\/p>\n The research, published online in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology<\/em>, sheds light on the role of 5-hmC. Intriguingly, it is more abundant in the brain than in other tissues in the body, for reasons not clear to date.<\/p>\n The CAMH team of scientists examined DNA from a variety of tissues, including the mouse and human brain, and looked at where 5-hmC was found in the genome. They detected that 5-hmC had a unique distribution in the brain: it was highly enriched in genes related to the synapse, the dynamic tips of brain cells<\/strong>. Growth and change in the synapse allow different brain cells to “wire” together, which enables learning and memory.<\/p>\n “This enrichment of 5-hmC in synapse-related genes suggests a role for this epigenetic modification in learning and memory,” says Dr. Petronis.<\/p>\n The team further showed that 5-hmC had a special distribution even within the gene<\/strong>. The code for one gene can be edited and “spliced” to create several different proteins. Dr. Petronis found that 5-hmC is located at “splice junctions,” the points where the gene is cut before splicing.<\/p>\n “5-hmC may signal the cell’s splicing machinery to generate the diverse proteins that, in turn, give rise to the unprecedented complexity of the brain,” he says.<\/p>\n The research team is continuing to investigate the role of 5-hmC in more detail, and to determine whether 5-hmC function is different in people with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia compared to people without these diagnoses.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From the CAMH press release via EurekAlert!: Researchers from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) have identified a new role of a chemical involved in controlling the genes… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,6],"tags":[42,234,19],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6535"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6535"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6710,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6535\/revisions\/6710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"The](\"http:\/\/www.therapytoronto.ca\/images\/blogpics\/Brain.jpg\")
Researchers from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) have identified a new role of a chemical involved in controlling the genes underlying memory and learning<\/strong>.<\/p>\n