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MINI REVIEW article

Front. Epigenet. Epigenom.
Sec. Chromatin Epigenomics
Volume 2 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/freae.2024.1451971
This article is part of the Research Topic Current Insights in Epigenetics and Epigenomics View all 5 articles

Subcellular One Carbon Metabolism in Cancer, Aging and Epigenetics

Provisionally accepted
Tiziano Bernasocchi Tiziano Bernasocchi Raul Mostoslavsky Raul Mostoslavsky *
  • Cancer Center, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Boston, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The crosstalk between metabolism and epigenetics is an emerging field that is gaining importance in different areas such as cancer and aging, where changes in metabolism significantly impacts the cellular epigenome, in turn dictating changes in chromatin as an adaptive mechanism to bring back metabolic homeostasis. A key metabolic pathway influencing an organism's epigenetic state is one-carbon metabolism (OCM), which includes the folate and methionine cycles. Together, these cycles generate S-adenosylmethionine (SAM), the universal methyl donor essential for DNA and histone methylation. SAM serves as the sole methyl group donor for DNA and histone methyltransferases, making it a crucial metabolite for chromatin modifications. In this review, we will discuss how SAM and its byproduct, S-adenosylhomocysteine (SAH), along with the enzymes and cofactors involved in OCM, may function in the different cellular compartments, particularly in the nucleus, to directly regulate the epigenome in aging and cancer.

    Keywords: one carbon metabolism, DNA Methylation, Histone Methylation, Sam, subcellular metabolism

    Received: 20 Jun 2024; Accepted: 17 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Bernasocchi and Mostoslavsky. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Raul Mostoslavsky, Cancer Center, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Boston, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.