Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34687722›Full record

ArticleBiophysical journal2021

Impact of chromosomal organization on epigenetic drift and domain stability revealed by physics-based simulations.

Joseph G Wakim, Sarah H Sandholtz, Andrew J Spakowitz

Open access · bronzeAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Biophysical journal, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
6citing papers in PubMed
0.8field-weighted citation impact, top 28% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

6 citing papers in PubMed, 11 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
  2. Physical models reveal indirect reader protein interactions that facilitate epigenetic crosstalk.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025
    Article
  3. Physical modeling of nucleosome clustering in euchromatin resulting from interactions between epigenetic reader proteins.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024
    Article
  4. Two-way feedback between chromatin compaction and histone modification state explainsProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024
    Article
  5. Article
  6. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Joseph G WakimDepartment of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California.
Sarah H SandholtzDepartment of Chemistry, Stanford University, Stanford, California.
Andrew J SpakowitzDepartment of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California; Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California; Biophysics Program, Stanford University, Stanford, California; Department of Applied Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, California. Electronic address: ajspakow@stanford.edu.
Stanford University · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

We examine the relationship between the size of domains of epigenetic marks and the stability of those domains using our theoretical model that captures the physical mechanisms governing the maintenance of epigenetic modifications. We focus our study on histone H3 lysine-9 trimethylation, one of the most common and consequential epigenetic marks with roles in chromatin compaction and gene repression. Our model combines the effects of methyl spreading by methyltransferases and chromatin segregation into heterochromatin and euchromatin because of preferential heterochromatin protein 1 (HP1) binding. Our model indicates that, although large methylated domains are passed successfully from one chromatin generation to the next, small alterations to the methylation sequence are not maintained during chromatin replication. Using our predictive model, we investigate the size required for an epigenetic domain to persist over chromatin generations while surrounded by a much larger domain of opposite methylation and compaction state. We find that there is a critical size threshold in the hundreds-of-nucleosomes scale above which an epigenetic domain will be reliably maintained over generations. The precise size of the threshold differs for heterochromatic and euchromatic domains. Our results are consistent with natural alterations to the epigenetic sequence occurring during embryonic development and due to age-related epigenetic drift.

Indexed as

Chromobox Protein Homolog 5Epigenesis, GeneticGenetic DriftHeterochromatinChromatinModels, GeneticChromatinChromobox Protein Homolog 5Heterochromatin

Identifiers

PMID34687722
PMCPMC8633838
OpenAlexW3206769902

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.