On a chromosome far, far away: LCRs and gene expression.
Transcription activation of a gene involves the ordered recruitment of components of the basal transcription machinery in concert with alterations in chromatin structure, including nucleosome remodeling and post-translational modification of histones. Enhancers and locus control regions (LCRs) that are remote from the genes they activate, recruit the complexes that carry out these alterations and, sometimes, recruit RNA polymerase II. The question of how these distant activators interact with their target genes has been of long-standing interest. Recent data indicate that LCRs mediate contact with their coordinate genes through the formation of domains of histone modification and of intra- and inter-chromosomal loops and that they might localize genes within nuclear regions that favor transcription.
Dean
Ann
A
Laboratory of Cellular and Developmental Biology, NIDDK, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA. anndean@helix.nih.gov
D000818:Animals; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000235:genetics; D002843:Chromatin / Q000235:genetics; D002875:Chromosomes / Q000235:genetics; D016207:Cytokines / Q000235:genetics; D004742:Enhancer Elements, Genetic; D015870:Gene Expression; D005802:Genes, MHC Class II; D005914:Globins / Q000235:genetics; D019382:Human Growth Hormone / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D019901:Locus Control Region; D008957:Models, Genetic; D018418:Th2 Cells / Q000276:immunology
D002843:Chromatin; D016207:Cytokines; D019382:Human Growth Hormone; D005914:Globins