In vivo studies of the Drosophila insulator factor CTCF reach a Catch 22.
Mutations in the proteins that bind insulator DNA elements that define the boundaries of chromatin domains can give morphogenetic readouts in Drosophila, as recently reported in BMC Biology by Bonchuk et al. in the Georgiev laboratory. But disentangling the effects on the phenotype may not be simple.See research article: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7007/13/63.
Department of Genetics and Evolution, University of Geneva, 30 quai Ernest Ansermet, 1211, Geneva, Switzerland. Franois.Karch@unige.ch.
François
F
Karch
D000818:Animals; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D008869:Microtubule-Associated Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D012097:Repressor Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*
D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D008869:Microtubule-Associated Proteins; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; D012097:Repressor Proteins