title: Gene length matters in neurons.
abstract: A recent study by Gabel et al. (2015) found that Mecp2, the gene mutated in Rett syndrome, represses long (> 100 kb) genes associated with neuronal physiology and connectivity by binding to methylated CA sites in DNA. This study adds to a growing body of literature implicating gene length and transcriptional mechanisms in neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology and Physiology, UNC Neuroscience Center, The Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7545, USA. Electronic address: zylka@med.unc.edu.
authors.forename: Mark J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Zylka
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology and Physiology, UNC Neuroscience Center, The Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7545, USA.
authors.forename: Jeremy M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Simon
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology and Physiology, UNC Neuroscience Center, The Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7545, USA.
authors.forename: Benjamin D
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Philpot
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019175:DNA Methylation / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D051783:Methyl-CpG-Binding Protein 2 / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D009154:Mutation / Q000235:genetics*; D015518:Rett Syndrome / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D051783:Methyl-CpG-Binding Protein 2