In epigenetics, arginine methylation of histones H3 and H4 is associated with a more accessible chromatin structure and thus higher levels of transcription.
The genomic DNA of eukaryotic cells is wrapped around special protein molecules known as histones.
[6] The current understanding and interpretation of histones comes from two large scale projects: ENCODE and the Epigenomic roadmap.
This led to chromatin states, which define genomic regions by grouping different proteins and/or histone modifications together.
Chromatin states were investigated in Drosophila cells by looking at the binding location of proteins in the genome.
[9] A look in to the data obtained led to the definition of chromatin states based on histone modifications.
This additional level of annotation allows for a deeper understanding of cell specific gene regulation.
ChIP-Seq can be used to identify and quantify various DNA fragments for different histone modifications along a genomic region.