Public Library of Science, PLoS ONE, 8(3), p. e3034, 2008
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0003034
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Patterns of methylation at lysine 4 and 27 of histone H3 have been associated with states of gene activation and repression that are developmentally regulated and are thought to underlie the establishment of lineage specific gene expression programs. Recent studies have provided fundamental insight into the problem of lineage specification by comparing global changes in chromatin and transcription between ES and neural stem (NS) cells, points respectively of departure and arrival for neural commitment. With these maps of the differentiated state in place, a central task is now to unravel the chromatin dynamics that enables these differentiation transitions. In particular, the observation that lineage-specific genes repressed in ES cells by Polycomb-mediated H3-K27 trimethylation (H3-K27me3) are demethylated and derepressed in differentiated cells posited the existence of a specific H3-K27 demethylase.