Recommend Epigenetics to your librarian today. Download form here.
Sign up for Table of Contents Alerts.
The official journal of the Epigenetics Society.
Email this page
Print this page
Point of View
Epigenetic control of the expression of opioid receptor genes
Li-Na Wei
volume 3 | issue 3
May/June 2008Pages: 119 - 121
Subscribe to this journal for $79/year
Three opioid receptors (ORs) are encoded by three different genes, the m (MOR), d (DOR) and k (KOR) genes in the OR gene family. The three genes are highly conserved in their structures and regulatory sequences, but expressed in temporally and spatially distinct patterns. Studies using cell models have revealed transcriptional regulation of the three genes by combinatorial, multiple transcription factors and chromatin remodeling and modification factors. Recent results implicated additional epigenetic contribution to the expression of the three OR genes, reflected on the alteration in their DNA methylation patterns and chromatin modifications, along the course of neuronal differentiation. In the retinoic acid-induced neuronal differentiation model, expression of receptors for neurotrophins in differentiating cells appeared to contribute to changes in the epigenetic marks of the promoters of OR genes during the course of neuronal differentiation, and hence the level of OR expression.
Authors
Li-Na Wei
University of Minnesota Medical School