Nuclear microenvironments support assembly and organization of the transcriptional regulatory machinery for cell proliferation and differentiation.
The temporal and spatial organization of transcriptional regulatory machinery provides microenvironments within the nucleus where threshold concentrations of genes and cognate factors facilitate functional interactions. Conventional biochemical, molecular, and in vivo genetic approaches, together with high throughput genomic and proteomic analysis are rapidly expanding our database of regulatory macromolecules and signaling pathways that are requisite for control of genes that govern proliferation and differentiation. There is accruing insight into the architectural organization of regulatory machinery for gene expression that suggests signatures for biological control. Localized scaffolding of regulatory macromolecules at strategic promoter sites and focal compartmentalization of genes, transcripts, and regulatory factors within intranuclear microenvironments provides an infrastructure for combinatorial control of transcription that is operative within the three dimensional context of nuclear architecture.
Stein
Gary S
GS
Department of Cell Biology and Cancer Center, University of Massachusetts Medical School, 55 Lake Ave. N., Worcester, Massachusetts 01655, USA. gary.stein@umassmed.edu
Lian
Jane B
JB
van Wijnen
Andre J
AJ
Stein
Janet L
JL
Javed
Amjad
A
Montecino
Martin
M
Zaidi
S Kaleem
SK
Young
Daniel
D
Choi
Je-Yong
JY
Gutierrez
Soraya
S
Pockwinse
Shirwin
S
D002453:Cell Cycle; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D002455:Cell Division; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D050676:Core Binding Factor Alpha 2 Subunit; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D008958:Models, Molecular; D015530:Nuclear Matrix / Q000235:genetics; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D015675:Osteocalcin / Q000378:metabolism; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D015398:Signal Transduction; D015534:Trans-Activators / Q000378:metabolism; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000378:metabolism; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
D050676:Core Binding Factor Alpha 2 Subunit; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins; D015534:Trans-Activators; D014157:Transcription Factors; D015675:Osteocalcin