Post-translational modifications and chromatin dynamics

Abstract

The dynamic structure of chromatin is linked to gene regulation and many other biological functions. Consequently, it is of importance to understand the factors that regulate chromatin dynamics. While the in vivo analysis of chromatin has verified that histone post-translational modifications play a role in modulating DNA accessibility, the complex nuclear environment and multiplicity of modifications prevents clear conclusions as to how individual modifications influence chromatin dynamics in the cell. For this reason, in vitro analyses of model reconstituted nucleosomal arrays has been pivotal in understanding the dynamic nature of chromatin compaction and the affects that specific post-translational modifications can have on the higher order chromatin structure. In this mini-review, we briefly describe the dynamic chromatin structures that have been observed in vitro and the environmental conditions that give rise to these various conformational states. Our focus then turns to a discussion of the specific histone post-translational modifications that have been shown to alter formation of these higher order chromatin structures in vitro and how this may relate to the biological state and accessibility of chromatin in vivo.

Ontogeny of inter‐alpha inhibitor protein (IAIP) expression in human brain

“…However, considering that much of the IAIP immunohistochemical expression appears to be mainly located in the nucleus, it remains possible that IAIPs could perform their function within the nucleus. Therefore, although we cannot be certain of the implications of our findings, we speculate that the relatively large number of cells containing nuclear IAIPs in cerebral cortex throughout a wide range of developmental ages suggests that endogenous nuclear IAIPs could potentially have a role in nuclear regulation of gene expression and/or other essential nuclear processes similar to those of histones and/or the high‐mobility group box‐1 protein (Chen, Nakada, et al, ; Deng, Scott, Fan, & Billiar, ; Tolsma & Hansen, ). In addition, the potential exists that IAIPs could be important binding partners for other nuclear proteins such as histones and the high‐mobility group box‐1 protein (Chaaban et al, ; Chen, Zhang, et al, ).…”

Carbohydrate Sulfotransferase 4 Inhibits the Progression of Hepatitis B Virus-Related Hepatocellular Carcinoma and Is a Potential Prognostic Marker in Several Tumors

“…In contrast, the mRNA levels of CHST4 were high in the pancreas and liver in C57BL/6 mice (12), which may be related to the different strains of mice (45). The difference in protein and mRNA levels may be due to translation or posttranslational modifications (46) of CHST4, although this has not yet been verified.…”

Prognosis and modulation mechanisms of COMMD6 in human tumours based on expression profiling and comprehensive bioinformatics analysis

“…In contrast, brain tissues expressed the lowest mRNA but relatively higher protein levels of COMMD6. We speculated that the difference in the expression level of COMMD6 between mRNA and protein might due to epigenetic 21 or post-translational modification 25 of COMMD6, which remains to be investigated.…”