Oudelaar AM, Hanssen LL, Hardison RC, Kassouf MT, Hughes JR, Higgs DR. Between form and function: the complexity of genome folding.
Hum Mol Genet 2017;
26:R208-R215. [PMID:
28977451 PMCID:
PMC5886466 DOI:
10.1093/hmg/ddx306]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/18/2017] [Revised: 07/18/2017] [Accepted: 07/19/2017] [Indexed: 01/24/2023] Open
Abstract
It has been known for over a century that chromatin is not randomly distributed within the nucleus. However, the question of how DNA is folded and the influence of such folding on nuclear processes remain topics of intensive current research. A longstanding, unanswered question is whether nuclear organization is simply a reflection of nuclear processes such as transcription and replication, or whether chromatin is folded by independent mechanisms and this per se encodes function? Evidence is emerging that both may be true. Here, using the α-globin gene cluster as an illustrative model, we provide an overview of the most recent insights into the layers of genome organization across different scales and how this relates to gene activity.
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