Disease relevance of HP1b

• Human HP1 was expressed as a GST-fusion in Escherichia coli and purified with glutathione-Sepharose [1].

High impact information on HP1b

• Consistently, JAK loss of function enhances heterochromatic gene silencing, whereas overexpressing HP1 suppresses oncogenic JAK-induced tumors [2].
• HP1 is a protein from Drosophila melanogaster, which binds preferentially to heterochromatin on polytene chromosomes and is likely to be a modifier of position effect variegation [3].
• HP1 proteins are amenable to posttranslational modifications that probably regulate these distinct functions, thereby creating a subcode within the context of the 'histone code' of histone posttranslational modifications [4].

Biological context of HP1b

• Drosophila HP1 has been shown to be involved in position effect variegation and to be required for the correct chromosome segregation in vivo, while the biological activity of human homolog (HP1Hsa) has not yet been characterized [1].

Analytical, diagnostic and therapeutic context of HP1b

• The DNA-binding activity of the recombinant HP1 was demonstrated by gel mobility shift assay and South-Western-type blotting [1].

References