Credit: Image courtesy of John Stamatoyannopoulos and Rae Senarighi
An epigenomic signature can be made on the genome in two ways, both of which play a role in turning genes off or on. The first occurs when chemical tags called methyl groups are attached to a DNA molecule directly (DNA methylation). The second occurs when a variety of chemical tags attach to the tails of histone proteins that package DNA (histone modifications).