Hoffmann, R. A wiki for the life sciences where authorship matters. Nature Genetics (2008)

Editor

Personal info

View

About

Terms

Javascript disabled

Please enable Javascript support in your browser to use this application.

Instructions on how to enable JavaScript on different browsers can be found here: http://www.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=23852.

[edit this page]

Palstra, R.J. et al.

The beta-globin nuclear compartment in development and erythroid differentiation.

Efficient transcription of genes requires a high local concentration of the relevant trans-acting factors. Nuclear compartmentalization can provide an effective means to locally increase the concentration of rapidly moving trans-acting factors; this may be achieved by spatial clustering of chromatin-associated binding sites for such factors. Here we analyze the structure of an erythroid-specific spatial cluster of cis-regulatory elements and active beta-globin genes, the active chromatin hub ( ACH; ref. 6), at different stages of development and in erythroid progenitors. We show, in mice and humans, that a core ACH is developmentally conserved and consists of the hypersensitive sites (HS1-HS6) of the locus control region ( LCR), the upstream 5' HS-60/-62 and downstream 3' HS1. Globin genes switch their interaction with this cluster during development, correlating with the switch in their transcriptional activity. In mouse erythroid progenitors that are committed to but do not yet express beta-globin, only the interactions between 5' HS-60/-62, 3' HS1 and hypersensitive sites at the 5' side of the LCR are stably present. After induction of differentiation, these sites cluster with the rest of the LCR and the gene that is activated. We conclude that during erythroid differentiation, cis-regulatory DNA elements create a developmentally conserved nuclear compartment dedicated to RNA polymerase II transcription of beta-globin genes.[1]

References

The beta-globin nuclear compartment in development and erythroid differentiation. Palstra, R.J., Tolhuis, B., Splinter, E., Nijmeijer, R., Grosveld, F., de Laat, W. Nat. Genet. (2003) [Pubmed]

Annotations and hyperlinks in this abstract are from individual authors of WikiGenes or automatically generated by the WikiGenes Data Mining Engine. The abstract is from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.About WikiGenes Open Access Licence Privacy Policy Terms of Use apsburg

The world's first wiki where authorship really matters (Nature Genetics, 2008). Due credit and reputation for authors. Imagine a global collaborative knowledge base for original thoughts. Search thousands of articles and collaborate with scientists around the globe.