Histone modification levels are predictive for gene expression

Histones are frequently decorated with covalent modifications. These histone modifications are thought to be involved in various chromatin-dependent processes including transcription. To elucidate the relationship between histone modifications and transcription, we derived quantitative models to predict the expression level of genes from histone modification levels. We found that histone modification levels and gene expression are very well correlated. Moreover, we show that only a small number of histone modifications are necessary to accurately predict gene expression. We show that different sets of histone modifications are necessary to predict gene expression driven by high CpG content promoters (HCPs) or…

• EM
  European Molecular Biology Organization
• IC
  International Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology
• IM
  International Max Planck Research School for Environmental, Cellular and Molecular Microbiology