Introduction: Epigenetic mechanisms regulate expression of the genome to generate various cell types during development or coordinate cellular responses to external stimulus. While epigenetics is of fundamental importance in eukaryotes, it plays a different role in bacteria. This article uncovers the most important recent data on how bacteria can alter epigenetic marks and can also contribute to and/or result to various diseases.
In this review article, Sciencedirect, PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar databases were used for finding the relevant studies.
Research has shown that bacteria can affect the chromatin structure and transcriptional program of host cells by influencing diverse epigenetic factors (i.e., histone modifications, DNA methylation, chromatin-associated complexes, and RNA splicing factors). Therefore, bacterial-induced epigenetic deregulations may affect host cell function either to host defense or to allow pathogen persistence. Hence, pathogenic bacteria can be considered as potential epimutagens able to reshape the epigenome that their effects might leading to cellular dysfunctions, which influenced immunity and might be at the origin of unexplained diseases and this caused presentation or contributed to the development of pathological changes.
Conclusion: Epigenetic modifications during development and in response to environmental factors contribute to phenotypic variability and susceptibility to a number of diseases, including infectious diseases, cancers, metabolic and autoimmune disorders.