Nuclear structure and higher order gene structure: their role in the control of chemically-induced neoplastic transformation.
An overview is hereby given of the physical and physicochemical alterations at the level of nuclear structures in rat liver cells, following a chemically-induced neoplastic transformation. These alterations refer to chromatin-DNA structure, from secondary (B- versus A- and Z-form) to tertiary-quanternary up to quinternary (in situ), and to the physical state of water. Possible molecular mechanisms-linking global chromatin changes to single gene expression in the control of neoplastic transformation-are discussed in terms of the degree of negative superhelicity of fibrosomes, recently identified single repeating structural subunits and hereby associated with single functional genes.
Nicolini
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Biophysics Division, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
D000818:Animals; D001834:Body Water; D002471:Cell Transformation, Neoplastic / Q000139:chemically induced* / Q000235:genetics; D002843:Chromatin / Q000187:drug effects / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D004273:DNA, Neoplasm / Q000032:analysis; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic / Q000187:drug effects*; D052138:Genes, Neoplasm; D011487:Protein Conformation; D051381:Rats
D002843:Chromatin; D004273:DNA, Neoplasm