The nucleosome surface is decorated with an array of enzyme-catalysed modifications on histone tails. These modifications have well-defined roles in a variety of ongoing chromatin functions, often by acting as receptors for non-histone proteins, but their longer-term effects are less clear. Here, an attempt is made to define how histone modifications operate as part of a predictive and heritable epigenetic code that specifies patterns of gene expression through differentiation and development.
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Acknowledgements
I am grateful to M. Barbieri for drawing my attention to the world of semiotics, and to A. Ferguson-Smith and colleagues in the Chromatin and Gene Expression Group for their thoughts, criticisms and insights.
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Turner, B. Defining an epigenetic code. Nat Cell Biol 9, 2–6 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncb0107-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ncb0107-2
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