Includes bibliographical references and index.

Epigenetics: from phenomenon to field / Daniel E. Gottschling -- A brief history of epigenetics / Gary Felsenfeld -- Overview and concepts / C. David Allis, Thomas Jenuwein, and Danny Reinberg -- Epigenetics in Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Michael Grunstein and Susan M. Gasser -- Position-effect variegation, heterochromatin formation, and gene silencing in drosophila / Sarah C.R. Elgin and Gunter Reuter -- Fungal models for epigenetic research: Schizosaccharomyces pombe and Neurospora crassa / Robin C. Allshire and Eric U. Selker -- Epigenetics of ciliates / Eric Meyer and Douglas L. Chalker -- RNAi and heterochromatin assembly / Robert Martienssen and Danesh Moazed -- Epigenetic regulation in plants / Marjori Matzke and Ortrun Mittelsten Scheid -- Chromatin modifications and their mechanism of action / Tony Kouzarides and Shelley L. Berger -- Transcriptional silencing by polycomb group proteins / Ueli Grossniklaus and Renato Paro -- Transcriptional regulation by trithorax group proteins / Robert E. Kingston and John W. Tamkun -- Histone variants and epigenetics / Steven Henikoff and M. Mitchell Smith. Epigenetic regulation of chromosome inheritance / Gary H. Karpen and R. Scott Hawley -- Epigenetic regulation of the X chromosome in C. elegans / Susan Strome and William G. Kelly -- Dosage compensation in drosophila / John C. Lucchesi and Mitzi I. Kuroda -- Dosage compensation in mammals / Neil Brockdorff and Bryan M. Turner -- DNA methylation in mammals / En Li and Adrian Bird -- Genomic imprinting in mammals / Denise P. Barlow and Marisa S. Bartolomei -- Germ line and pluripotent stem cells / M. Azim Surani and Wolf Reik -- Epigenetic control of lymphopoiesis / Meinrad Busslinger and Alexander Tarakhovsky -- Nuclear transplantation and the reprogramming of the genome / Rudolf Jaenisch and John Gurdon -- Epigenetics and human disease / Huda Y. Zoghbi and Arthur L. Beaudet -- Epigenetic determinants of cancer / Stephen B. Baylin and Peter A. Jones.