Imprinting and looping: epigenetic marks control interactions between regulatory elements.
Gene regulation involves various cis-regulatory elements that can act at a distance. They may physically interact each other or with their target genes to exert their effects. Such interactions are beginning to be uncovered in the imprinted Igf2/H19 domain.(1) The differentially methylated regions (DMRs), containing insulators, silencers and activators, were shown to have physical contacts between them. The interactions were changeable depending on their epigenetic state, presumably enabling Igf2 to move between an active and a silent chromatin domain. The study gives us a novel view on how regulatory elements influence gene expression and how epigenetic modifications modulate their long-range effects.
Kato
Yuzuru
Y
Division of Human Genetics, Department of Integrated Genetics, National Institute of Genetics, Research Organization of Information and Systems, Mishima 411-8540, Japan.
Sasaki
Hiroyuki
H
D000483:Alleles; D000818:Animals; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000378:metabolism; D002843:Chromatin / Q000737:chemistry; D004742:Enhancer Elements, Genetic; D018392:Genomic Imprinting; D006801:Humans; D008745:Methylation; D008954:Models, Biological; D008957:Models, Genetic; D005810:Multigene Family; D011485:Protein Binding; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary
D002843:Chromatin