Evidence of Epigenetic Oncogenesis: A Turning Point in Cancer Research.

In cancer research, the term epigenetics was used in the 1970s in its modern sense encompassing non-genetic events modifying the chromatin state, mainly to oppose the emerging oncogene paradigm. However, starting from the establishment of this prominent concept, the importance of these epigenetic phenomena in cancer rarely led to questioning the causal role of genetic alterations. Only in the last 10 years, the accumulation of problematic data, better experimental technologies, and some ambitious models pushed the idea that epigenetics could be at least as important as genetics in early oncogenesis.

Global chromatin reorganization and regulation of genes with specific evolutionary ages during differentiation and cancer.

Cancer cells are highly plastic, allowing them to adapt to changing conditions. Genes related to basic cellular processes evolved in ancient species, while more specialized genes appeared later with multicellularity (metazoan genes) or even after mammals evolved. Transcriptomic analyses have shown that ancient genes are up-regulated in cancer, while metazoan-origin genes are inactivated.

Self-reported fatigue: A significant risk factor for falling in older women and men.

Objective: To determine whether fatigue may be a risk factor for falling in older men and women, independent of other components of the frailty phenotype, fear of falling, and physical performance.

Design: Among 986 women and 485 men visiting a health resort (mean age 72.3 and 72.

Benefits of a 3-week outpatient balneotherapy programme on patient-reported outcomes.

Background: Analysis of the health profile of participants aged over 65 has been initiated in balneotherapy.

Aims: To determine the benefits of a 3-week outpatient balneotherapy program on patient-reported outcomes.

Methods: Our sample consisted of 1471 people.

Analysis of the health profiles and prevalence of falls for patients over 65 years of age in a thermal environment.

Background: A falls prevention programme has been initiated in balneotherapy at Balaruc-les-Bains.

Aims: To determine the health profiles of subjects who are at risk of falls, over 65 years of age and attending balneotherapy.

Methods: Questionnaires were used to evaluate people on their fear of falling.

Universality of the DNA methylation codes in Eucaryotes.

Genetics and epigenetics are tightly linked heritable information classes. Question arises if epigenetics provides just a set of environment dependent instructions, or whether it is integral part of an inheritance system. We argued that in the latter case the epigenetic code should share the universality quality of the genetic code.

[Risk of falls among patients admitted to a medical-surgical ward. Analysis of 376 medical records].

Background: Detecting patients at risk of falls during hospital stay is of utmost importance to implement preventive measures.

Aim: To determine the frequency of patients with a high risk of falls admitted to a medical-surgical ward. To assess the preventive measures implemented.

Histone methylation changes are required for life cycle progression in the human parasite Schistosoma mansoni.

Epigenetic mechanisms and chromatin structure play an important role in development. Their impact is therefore expected to be strong in parasites with complex life cycles and multiple, strikingly different, developmental stages, i.e.

Notos - a galaxy tool to analyze CpN observed expected ratios for inferring DNA methylation types.

Background: DNA methylation patterns store epigenetic information in the vast majority of eukaryotic species. The relatively high costs and technical challenges associated with the detection of DNA methylation however have created a bias in the number of methylation studies towards model organisms. Consequently, it remains challenging to infer kingdom-wide general rules about the functions and evolutionary conservation of DNA methylation.

Epigenetic origin of adaptive phenotypic variants in the human blood fluke Schistosoma mansoni.

Background: Adaptive evolution is not possible without the generation of phenotypic variants. The origin of these variations has been a central topic in evolutionary biology. Up to now, it was commonly accepted that standing genetic variation is the only cause of phenotypic variants.

Haplotype Detection from Next-Generation Sequencing in High-Ploidy-Level Species: 45S rDNA Gene Copies in the Hexaploid Spartina maritima.

Gene and whole-genome duplications are widespread in plant nuclear genomes, resulting in sequence heterogeneity. Identification of duplicated genes may be particularly challenging in highly redundant genomes, especially when there are no diploid parents as a reference. Here, we developed a pipeline to detect the different copies in the ribosomal RNA gene family in the hexaploid grass Spartina maritima from next-generation sequencing (Roche-454) reads.