Role of polycomb proteins in gene transcription, stem cell and human diseases

Published on February 4, 2014   37 min

A selection of talks on Genetics & Epigenetics

Please wait while the transcript is being prepared...
0:00
Role of Polycomb Proteins in Gene Description, Stem Cells and Human Diseases, by Luciano Di Croce, from the Gene Regulation, Stem cell, and Cancer Department, ICREA, and Center for Genomic Regulation, Barcelona, Spain.
0:17
The DNA of eukaryotic cells is organized in chromatin fibers, where the nucleosome forms the basic repeating unit. Each nucleosome comprises 147 base pairs of DNA, which is wrapped in 1.8 elegant turn around an octamer of four highly evolutionarily conserved histone protein, which are histone H two A, histone H two B, histone H three, and histone H four. These four structure, which is often called as 11 nanometer fibers. The histone H1 lines to deliver DNA between two addition nucleosomes, causing further compaction of the chromatin fibers into higher order structure, often refer as a solenoid or as 30 nanometer fibers. The analyses of the crystal structure of the nucleosome, which was solved in 1998 by the group of Luger and Richmond, reveal that on terminal a part of the histone tail are flexible and protrude outside from the nucleosome core. The histone tail undergoes a large number of post-translational modifications.
1:32
Some of these modifications are illustrated in this slide. For example, lysine can be acetylated, methylated, while arginine can also be methylated. Serine and threonine can be phosphorylated. Lysine can be also to be ubiquitinated or sumoylated and so forth. Too many functions have been ascribed for histone modifications. For example, acetylation of lysine neutralizes the positive charge at histone tail. And two, altering histone DNA interaction reduces interaction between different histones, in addition to nucleosomes. Moreover, as illustrated in the bottom part of this slide, several post transcriptional modifications of histones generate docking side, or modulate the affinity of nuclear proteins for chromatin. The specific recognition of histone modification is achieved by a dozen protein domains, which are present in a large number of chromatin-associated proteins. In turn, these adaptive proteins are usually part of large protein complexes, implicated in chromatin remodeling, prescription, or for further modifications of histone tails.

Quiz available with full talk access. Request Free Trial or Login.

Hide

Role of polycomb proteins in gene transcription, stem cell and human diseases

Embed in course/own notes