Abstract
Schizophrenia is a chronic mental illness with a substantial genetic component. To
unfold the complex etiology of schizophrenia, it is important to understand the interplay
between genetic and nongenetic factors. Genetic factors involve variation in the DNA
sequences of protein-coding genes, which directly contribute to phenotypic traits,
and variation in noncoding sequences, which comprise 98% of the genome and contain
DNA elements known to play a role in regulating gene expression. The epigenome refers
to the chemical modifications on both DNA and the structural proteins that package
DNA into the nucleus, which together regulate gene expression in specific cell types,
conditions, and developmental stages. The dynamic nature of the epigenome makes it
an ideal tool to investigate the relationship between inherited genetic mutations
associated with schizophrenia and altered gene regulation throughout the course of
brain development. In this review, we focus on the current understanding of the role
of epigenetic marks and their three-dimensional nuclear organization in the developmental
trajectory of distinct brain cell types to decipher the complex gene regulatory mechanisms
that are disrupted in schizophrenia.
Keywords
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Article Info
Publication History
Published online: May 09, 2022
Accepted:
April 27,
2022
Received in revised form:
April 14,
2022
Received:
January 10,
2022
Identification
Copyright
Published by Elsevier Inc on behalf of Society of Biological Psychiatry.
