Gene switch sites found mainly on 'shores,' not just 'islands' of the human genome

Saturday, January 24, 2009 - 14:08 in Biology & Nature

Scientists who study how human chemistry can permanently turn off genes have typically focused on small islands of DNA believed to contain most of the chemical alterations involved in those switches. But after an epic tour of so-called DNA methylation sites across the human genome in normal and cancer cells, Johns Hopkins scientists have found that the vast majority of the sites aren't grouped in those islands at all, but on nearby regions that they've named 'shores'...

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