Figure 1

General scheme of epigenetic templating. This mechanism implies two essential features: a. Physical linkage between the enzymatic activity depositing a particular epigenetic mark (covalent modification, alternative histone, etc.) and the recognition module for this mark; b. Formation of dimers (or oligomers) by the target of enzymatic activity (protein, nucleic acid, etc.). Shown are three scenarios: I – presence of the mark on one monomer will direct its deposition on the second monomer via recruitment of the depositing activity (can also involve allosteric effects of R-module binding on D-module activity), II – unmarked dimer will not recruit modifier, III – if both monomers are marked, they will not be affected. R – recognition module, D – deposition module, T – target.