Author Description

DNA methylation is the modification of DNA molecule, transferring methy group to the 5th position of the cytosine pyrimidine ring. This biochemical process plays a crucial role in many cellular processes of higher organisms. For example, people have found distinct patterns of DNA methylation during cellular differentiation and tissue development. The differential DNA methylation profiles are often associated with gene expression. In addition, DNA methylation reveals genomic imprinting and affects on chromatin remodeling and cellular homeostasis. Such epigenetic modification has also been proven to be involved in nearly all cancer-related signaling pathways. However, the mechanism and process against how DNA methylation regulates gene expression are still not clear. The study of DNA methylation and its regulation on gene expression provides fundamental and new insights into the genetic heritability. In Chapter 1, Gene duplication event of NAC transcription factor genes in rice and Arabidopsis was analyzed, then it was found that chromosomal segment duplications mainly contributed to the expansion of both species, whereas tandem duplication occurred less frequently in Arabidopsis than rice. Chapter 2 reviews the current literature related to the epigenetics of alcoholism and summarizes our advanced study of global DNA methylation in human post-mortem frontal cortex tissues obtained from adult alcoholics and controls utilizing new microarray technology and bioinformatics approaches. Chapter 3 gives a comprehensive synopsis over the epigenetic modifications involved in the regulation of bacterial gene expression as well as the patho-epigenetic modifications in eukaryotic host tissues triggered in the pathogenesis of particular Gram-negative bacterial infections. Both, basic molecular mechanisms and complex pathogenetic relations are described. Chapter 4 provides an epigenetic repressing mechanism for breast cancer metastasis by recruiting NuRD complex to ESR1 gene throu