# Food for genes: metabolism and histone marks

> The molecules a cell makes from its food are also the raw material for tags on histones, so metabolism can change how genes are used.

Source: https://khushisingh.in/explore/07-food-for-genes/
Author: Khushi Singh (khushisingh.in). Licence: CC BY 4.0 for text and original illustrations, unless a credit says otherwise.
Evidence labels used on this site: established, strong evidence, emerging, hypothesis, debated. Where a page has Simple, Curious and Expert versions, all three follow.

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[Biology made simple](https://khushisingh.in/explore/) · Ideas from my research · 7 of 8

About 2 minutes

Cells break down sugar to release energy, and its products, such as **acetyl-CoA** and **lactate**, are also the raw material for histone tags. In yeast, a rise in acetyl-CoA switches on growth genes by acetylating their histones (Cai et al. 2011); in human cells, acetyl tags follow the supply of acetyl-CoA (Wellen et al. 2009). In 2019, lactate was found to become a histone tag of its own, **lactylation** (Zhang et al. 2019). (evidence: strong evidence)

Gut microbes join in: in mice, molecules made by gut bacteria change histone marks across the body (Krautkramer et al. 2016). (evidence: strong evidence) So what an organism eats, and the microbes it lives with, can reach its chromatin. This is the heart of my current project.

*[Here the web page has an interactive activity; open the source URL to use it.]*

## Step inside a nucleus

Real nucleosome structures arranged into a chromatin fibre, with lactate drifting by. It works in the browser; on a VR headset you can step inside. The arrangement and the lactate are an artist’s impression.

*[Here the web page has an interactive 3D model; open the source URL to use it.]*

**In my research:** [Lactate, histone marks and the embryo’s first genes →](https://khushisingh.in/research/gut-to-germline/)

## Sources

1. Cai L, Sutter BM, Li B, Tu BP (2011) Acetyl-CoA induces cell growth and proliferation by promoting the acetylation of histones at growth genes. Molecular Cell 42:426–437. [doi:10.1016/j.molcel.2011.05.004](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molcel.2011.05.004)
2. Wellen KE, et al. (2009) ATP-citrate lyase links cellular metabolism to histone acetylation. Science 324:1076–1080. [doi:10.1126/science.1164097](https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1164097)
3. Zhang D, et al. (2019) Metabolic regulation of gene expression by histone lactylation. Nature 574:575–580. [doi:10.1038/s41586-019-1678-1](https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1678-1)
4. Krautkramer KA, et al. (2016) Diet–microbiota interactions mediate global epigenetic programming in multiple host tissues. Molecular Cell 64:982–992. [doi:10.1016/j.molcel.2016.10.025](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molcel.2016.10.025)