title: The context of gene expression regulation.
abstract: Recent advances in sequencing technologies have uncovered a world of RNAs that do not code for proteins, known as non-protein coding RNAs, that play important roles in gene regulation. Along with histone modifications and transcription factors, non-coding RNA is part of a layer of transcriptional control on top of the DNA code. This layer of components and their interactions specifically enables (or disables) the modulation of three-dimensional folding of chromatin to create a context for transcriptional regulation that underlies cell-specific transcription. In this perspective, we propose a structural and functional hierarchy, in which the DNA code, proteins and non-coding RNAs act as context creators to fold chromosomes and regulate genes.
authors.affiliation: Program in Systems Biology; Program in Gene Function and Expression University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Johan H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Gibcus
authors.forename: Job
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dekker