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Epigenetic Regulation of the Mammalian Cell

BACKGROUND: Understanding how mammalian cells are regulated epigenetically to express phenotype is a priority. The cellular phenotypic transition, induced by ionising radiation, from a normal cell to the genomic instability phenotype, where the ability to replicate the genotype accurately is comprom...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Baverstock, Keith, Rönkkö, Mauno
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2008
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2390762/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18523589
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0002290
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author Baverstock, Keith
Rönkkö, Mauno
author_facet Baverstock, Keith
Rönkkö, Mauno
author_sort Baverstock, Keith
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Understanding how mammalian cells are regulated epigenetically to express phenotype is a priority. The cellular phenotypic transition, induced by ionising radiation, from a normal cell to the genomic instability phenotype, where the ability to replicate the genotype accurately is compromised, illustrates important features of epigenetic regulation. Based on this phenomenon and earlier work we propose a model to describe the mammalian cell as a self assembled open system operating in an environment that includes its genotype, neighbouring cells and beyond. Phenotype is represented by high dimensional attractors, evolutionarily conditioned for stability and robustness and contingent on rules of engagement between gene products encoded in the genetic network. METHODOLOGY/FINDINGS: We describe how this system functions and note the indeterminacy and fluidity of its internal workings which place it in the logical reasoning framework of predicative logic. We find that the hypothesis is supported by evidence from cell and molecular biology. CONCLUSIONS: Epigenetic regulation and memory are fundamentally physical, as opposed to chemical, processes and the transition to genomic instability is an important feature of mammalian cells with probable fundamental relevance to speciation and carcinogenesis. A source of evolutionarily selectable variation, in terms of the rules of engagement between gene products, is seen as more likely to have greater prominence than genetic variation in an evolutionary context. As this epigenetic variation is based on attractor states phenotypic changes are not gradual; a phenotypic transition can involve the changed contribution of several gene products in a single step.
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spelling pubmed-23907622008-06-04 Epigenetic Regulation of the Mammalian Cell Baverstock, Keith Rönkkö, Mauno PLoS One Research Article BACKGROUND: Understanding how mammalian cells are regulated epigenetically to express phenotype is a priority. The cellular phenotypic transition, induced by ionising radiation, from a normal cell to the genomic instability phenotype, where the ability to replicate the genotype accurately is compromised, illustrates important features of epigenetic regulation. Based on this phenomenon and earlier work we propose a model to describe the mammalian cell as a self assembled open system operating in an environment that includes its genotype, neighbouring cells and beyond. Phenotype is represented by high dimensional attractors, evolutionarily conditioned for stability and robustness and contingent on rules of engagement between gene products encoded in the genetic network. METHODOLOGY/FINDINGS: We describe how this system functions and note the indeterminacy and fluidity of its internal workings which place it in the logical reasoning framework of predicative logic. We find that the hypothesis is supported by evidence from cell and molecular biology. CONCLUSIONS: Epigenetic regulation and memory are fundamentally physical, as opposed to chemical, processes and the transition to genomic instability is an important feature of mammalian cells with probable fundamental relevance to speciation and carcinogenesis. A source of evolutionarily selectable variation, in terms of the rules of engagement between gene products, is seen as more likely to have greater prominence than genetic variation in an evolutionary context. As this epigenetic variation is based on attractor states phenotypic changes are not gradual; a phenotypic transition can involve the changed contribution of several gene products in a single step. Public Library of Science 2008-06-04 /pmc/articles/PMC2390762/ /pubmed/18523589 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0002290 Text en Baverstock, Rönkkö. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Baverstock, Keith
Rönkkö, Mauno
Epigenetic Regulation of the Mammalian Cell
title Epigenetic Regulation of the Mammalian Cell
title_full Epigenetic Regulation of the Mammalian Cell
title_fullStr Epigenetic Regulation of the Mammalian Cell
title_full_unstemmed Epigenetic Regulation of the Mammalian Cell
title_short Epigenetic Regulation of the Mammalian Cell
title_sort epigenetic regulation of the mammalian cell
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2390762/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18523589
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0002290
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