Nuclear Organization, Chromatin Structure, and Gene Expression

by van Driel, Roel; Otte, Arie P.

• ISBN13: 9780198549222
• ISBN10: 0198549229
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-01-08
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This is one of the first books that focuses on emerging concepts about therole of the structure of chromatin, the organization of the genome, and thestructure of the interphase nucleus in the control of gene expression ineukaryotes. The first section analyses the relationship between the dynamicchromatin structure at the nucleosome level and gene expression. Section twolooks into higher order chromatin structure in relation to transcription. Insection three the molecular basis of epigenetic phenomena, like X-chromosomeinactivation is discussed, starting from our understanding of chromatinstructure. Together, these topics form the molecular basis for ourunderstanding of cell differentiation, knowledge that is essential for thedesign of transgenic animals and plants and for gene therapy in humans. Thebook is of direct interest to students that are new in the field and toinvestigators in the area of biomolecular sciences, like developmental biology,biochemistry, cell biology, microbiology and genetics. Also, those working inapplied fields of research, i.e biotechnology and biomedicine, will stronglybenefit from this book. It will help them to understand fundamental problems intransgenics and gene therapy. Importantly, a variety of human disorders mayturn out to be caused by genetic or somatic errors related to this level of genecontrol.

Table of Contents

Nucleosome dynamics and transcription

Nucleosomes: dynamic repressors of transcriptions

Role of positioned nucleosome in constitutive repression and hormone induction of the MMTV promoter

Histone modification and transcriptional competence

Mechanisms for alleviating chromatin-mediated repression of transcription

Higher order structure of the genome and the nucleus

Chromatin domains and boundary elements

Nuclear matrix associated regions

The chicken lysozyme chromatin domain

Locus control regions

Interphase chromosome positions and structure during silencing, transcription and replication

Genes and transcripts in the interphase nucleus

Biological structure and epigenetic control of gene expression

DNA methylation and genomic imprinting

X chromosome inactivation and heritable chromatin structure

Drosophila heterochromatin: retreats for repeats

Mechanisms of heritable gene silencing during development of Drosophila

Heterochromatin and regulation of gene expression in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Homology-dependent gene silencing in transgenic plants and related phenomena in other eukaryotes

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