Over the last two decades, scientists have come to understand that the genetic code held within DNA represents only part of the blueprint of life. The rest comes from specific patterns of chemical tags that overlay the DNA structure, determining how tightly the DNA is packaged and how accessible certain genes are to be switched on or off.
As researchers have uncovered more and more of these “epigenetic” tags, they have begun to wonder how they are all connected. Now, research from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine has established the first link between the two most fundamental epigenetic tags — histone modification and DNA methylation — in humans.
View the original article here: Scientists find missing link between players in the epigenetic code