2022-06-09 20:10:51
We are incredibly complex creatures, made up of trillions of wonderfully organized b-cells, a vast society generated from a single cell. It is impressive to think that that primordial cell, formed from the union of an ovum and a spermatozoon, already contained all the information necessary for the creation of the numerous and complex multitude of cells that make up any of us. We have learned that all this information is contained in the ADN, but, with the information it is not enough. The same thing that happens when creating any of our most complex machines, it is not enough to have a detailed diagram of the elements that compose it, it is necessary to structure each step of the construction with great care and many other factors intervene in this process, you have to know what to do in each moment and place, structure each step in the correct order, from the beginning until all the components of the machinery are assembled and put into operation.
Who is in charge of deciding what to do at each moment of the development of a living being? If all cells contain the same ADN How is it decided which part of the information is necessary at each moment and which is not? It is obvious that only part of the information stored in the ADN It is essential for the existence of a specialized cell. A liver cell is different from a kidney or skin cell, and these differences are due to the fact that different genes have been activated and deactivated in them at a given moment.
What factors intervene in the activation or in the silence of the pertinent genes to carry out a determined function? We enter another level, a level that goes beyond genetics itself. We talk about “epigenetics”.
To learn the meaning and content of the word “epigenetics” we have today in Speaking with Scientists Esteban Ballestar, a researcher at the Josep Carreras Research Institute where he heads the Epigenetics and Immunological Diseases Group.
Dr. Ballestar explains during the interview that epigenetics is the discipline that studies the mechanisms that signal and mark which genes must be turned on and which must remain silent in cells. “In a text, for example, we think that the content is in the words. However, it is no less important how these words are separated, punctuated and a series of marks are added that are key for the message to be understood” -says Esteban Ballestar. The same thing happens in cells as an embryo develops. During the development process, marks are established that progressively differentiate the cells that make up the different tissues.
He ADN It is a very long molecule, almost two meters long, but despite its length, it must be packed into a kind of ball in the nucleus of each cell in our body. Extracting the information encoded in a gene requires that the region containing it be exposed in such a way that it can be copied. Epigenetics does that job. Allows you to mark and prepare the ADN so that a gene can be read, its information can be copied and sent to cellular factories to generate a protein. Epigenetics is the switch that allows the activation or inactivation of a gene. Thus, each adult cell has its own collection of epigenetic marks that turns on a particular family of genes and turns off others. Normally this collection is maintained throughout the life of the cell, although it has been shown that the environment can also make it possible to change or weaken some epigenetic marks.
Esteban Ballestar’s research interests focus on understanding the mechanisms underlying the deposition and removal of epigenetic modifications in immune cells, the influence of genetic and environmental determinants, and the acquisition of epigenetic defects in immune-related diseases, including primary immunodeficiencies and autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases. His group is also investigating the impact of epigenetic regulation of immune cells in the microtumor environment.
I invite you to listen to Esteban Ballestar, a researcher at the Josep Carreras Research Institute where he heads the Epigenetics and Immunological Diseases Group.
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