Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hi! I am in 10th grade and I'm trying to design a science experiment testing epigenetics and alcoholism. I found that alcohol is metabolized by 2 enzymes: ADH and ALDH. I also found that people's genes can change in response to increased alcohol consumption because the body struggles to metabolize so much alcohol at once. Therefore, I tried to figure out if more ADH/ALDH enzymes are produced as a result. Instead, I found that more histones are produced: https://link.springer.com/article/10.10 ... 014-9546-4
I would like to know, is the production of histones coded for by DNA in the same way that enzymes are? Are histones and alcohol metabolization related in any way? Is there a relation between ADH and ALDH enzymes and histones? As far as I know, their only similarity is that they are both proteins.
I would really like to know more about the relationship between genotypes, ADH/ALDH enzymes, histones, and alcohol metabolism, so I would appreciate it if you could answer my questions. Thank you!

Hi,

I'm going to try and answer your questions the best way I can and also provide internet resources you could take a look at.

Is the production of histones coded for by DNA in the same way that enzymes are?

I don't think histones are coded for by DNA. According to my research, they seem to be more of separate entities, but they do in fact relate with one another. DNA wraps around Histones and Histones help to package DNA into nucleosomes.

Here are some other things I found :
https://study.com/academy/lesson/histon ... -quiz.html
https://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpa ... omatin-310
https://www.nature.com/scitable/definit ... istones-57

Are histones and alcohol metabolization related in any way? Is there a relation between ADH and ALDH enzymes and histones?

The answer is yes to both of those questions! There are certain proteins/chemicals that are generated during ethanol/alcohol metabolism that cause a modification in Chromatin structure (Remember, Histones make up Chromatin). Additionally, histone methylation and histone acetylation are influenced by the level of alcohol in one's system.

Resource I used:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3860421/

I hope that was helpful! Feel free to ask any more questions if it is still not clear.

Peace

Hi! I am in 10th grade and I'm trying to design a science experiment testing pharmagogenomics and alcoholism. I found out that in my research, I should probably focus more on transcriptomes rather than genes because by studying transcriptomes, I can better understand the effect alcohol has on gene expression, and thus, the production of alcohol-metabolizing enzymes. Alcohol is metabolized by 2 groups of enzymes: ADH and ALDH, but I've been struggling to find a link between these enzymes and transcriptomes. I used this data:

https://discovery.lifemapsc.com/gene-ex ... y-controls

From this analysis, the upregulated enzymes from heavy alcohol use over time do not include any ADH/ALDH isoenzymes. In fact, these enzymes are not included in the study at all, not even among the down regulated enzymes.

I found a lot of evidence associating alcohol use disorder with ADH/ALDH enzymes, so I am very confused about this data. I would like to know, how do transcriptomes play a role in alcohol metabolization? Is the disequilibrium caused by the upregulation/downregulation of certain genes the cause of withdrawal when people discontinue the longterm use of a drug?

Are ADH/ALDH enzymes upregulated/downregulated in alcoholic hepatitis patients? If you could give me some clarification about the data I found, that would be great. If not, I would really appreciate it if you could answer my other questions. Thank you!

Moderator note: This post is closely related to your previous post, so I merged the two. That way, the expert who was helping you can see that you have a follow-up post and can respond. Thank you.