title: Epigenetic modifications in distinction: histone versus DNA methylation in ESCs.
abstract: In this issue of Cell Stem Cell, Karimi et al. (2011) show that DNA methylation and histone H3 lysine 9 trimethylation (H3K9me3) have distinct genomic targets in mouse ESCs. In particular, loss of H3K9me3 leads to derepression of select endogenous retroviruses and subsequent ectopic transcription of adjacent genes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Genetics, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095-7088, USA.
authors.forename: Kevin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Guoping
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Fan