The epigenome and the mitochondrion: bioenergetics and the environment

Abstract

In the July 15, 2010, issue of Genes & Development, Yoon and colleagues (pp. 1507–1518) report that, in a siRNA knockdown survey of 6363 genes in mouse C2C12 cells, they discovered 150 genes that regulated mitochondrial biogenesis and bioenergetics. Many of these genes have been studied previously for their importance in regulating transcription, protein and nucleic acid modification, and signal transduction. Some notable examples include Brac1, Brac2, Pax4, Sin3A, Fyn, Fes, Map2k7, Map3k2, calmodulin 3, Camk1, Ube3a, and Wnt. Yoon and colleagues go on to validate their observations by extensively documenting the role of Wnt signaling in the regulation of mitochondrial function.

Succinate Dehydrogenase of Saccharomyces cerevisiae – The Unique Enzyme of TCA Cycle – Current Knowledge and New Perspectives

“…To review mitochondrial diseases may be a very difficult task because the definition might include different kinds of metabolic disorders or degenerative syndromes [24]. Moreover, some important aspects have been extensively reviewed and the reader might refer to very good recent articles by DiMauro and Garone [25] for historical aspects, by Wallace et al [26,27] for bioenergetics, by Spinazzola and Zeviani [28] for nucleomitochondrial intergenomic cross-talk. The previous review by Schwimmer et al [29] was given an important outline of yeast models of mitochondrial diseases.…”

Phytochemicals and Cancer Chemoprevention: Epigenetic Friends or Foe?

“…Furthermore, many activities controlling chromatin dynamics require metabolites that shuttle between different cellular functions and pathways. One critical facet of histone and DNA modifying enzymes is that their activity also depends on intracellular levels of essential metabolites (acetyl-coA, Fe, ketoglutarate, NAD+, S-adenosylmethionine, see Figure 1) of which the concentrations are tighly linked to global cellular metabolism and energy levels (Bellet & Sassone-Corsi, 2010;Chang et al, 2010;Ladurner, 2009;Luo & Kuo, 2009;Wallace, 2010a;2010b). Gene regulation is thus linked to the metabolic status of cells.…”

Stress Shaping Brains: Higher Order DNA/Chromosome Mechanisms Underlying Epigenetic Programming of the Brain Transcriptome

“…At the single-cell level, protocadherin-alpha mRNAs are regulated monoallelically, supporting the idea that diversified protocadherin molecules contribute to neural circuit development and provide individual cells with their specific identity (Hilschmann et al, 2001). The neocortical genomic response to stress is relayed via hormones and reactive oxygen/nitrogen species signaling, thereby implicating the mitochondrial genome and bioenergetic metabolism (Wallace, 2010), which is suggested to represent an extension of dynamic genomic changes in parallel to the immune recombination and neural rearrangement (protocadherin) histories and fragile site events ) of a particular individual.…”

“…Furthermore, bioenergetic metabolism as related to mitochondrial genetics (including both mitochondrial genes and nuclear genes involved with bioenergetic crosstalk) (Wallace, 2010) as well as epigenetic modification of DNA regulatory structures are considered to be increasingly important in neuroplasticity. Most of the gene identification studies have assayed for only one type of epigenetic marker.…”