Saturday, January 9, 2016

Post-translational modifications in neurodegeneration

Alessandro Didonna, Federico Benetti. AIMS Biophysics, 2016, 3(1): 27-49. doi: 10.3934/biophy.2016.1.27

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A example is Friedreich ataxia, the expanded repeat induces gene silencing through a process of heterochromatinization partially mediated by hypo-acetylation of specific lysine residues on histones around the trinucleotide repeats and on the promoter.
Acetylation is one of the most common PTMs and consists in the reversible transfer of an acetyl group from the acetyl-coenzyme A to the ɛ-amino group of the side chain of lysine residues. Two classes of enzymes catalyze this PTM: histone acetyl transferases (HATs) and histone de-acetylases (HDACs).