Retraction

Eukaryotic genomes are packaged in two general varieties of chromatin: gene-rich euchromatin and gene-poor heterochromatin. Each type of chromatin has been defined by the presence of distinct chromosomal proteins and posttranslational histone modifications. This review addresses recent findings that appear to blur the definitions of euchromatin and heterochromatin by pointing to the presence of typically heterochromatic modifications (including H3K9me) in euchromatin and typically euchromatic enzymes (including RNA polymerases) in heterochromatin. We discuss the implications of these new findings for the current definition of heterochromatin.

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The contradictory definitions of heterochromatin: transcription and silencing

Huisinga

2006

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Chromatin structure and gene regulation in T cell development and function

Wilson

Merkenschlager

2006

Current Opinion in Immunology

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Transcription factors control gene expression programs in the context of the chromatin structure of their target genes. DNA methylation, post-translational histone modifications such as acetylation and methylation, and higher order chromatin organization allow the maintenance of gene expression patterns through mitosis, but how do they accommodate developmentally regulated changes in gene expression programs? Although histone acetylation and deacetylation are in dynamic equilibrium and mechanisms for the removal of methyl groups from histones are emerging, the extent to which there is active demethylation of DNA remains controversial. Looking at chromatin in the three-dimensional space of the nucleus, recent work demonstrates that gene regulation involves contacts between regulatory elements within genes or gene clusters on the same chromosome (in cis) and between different chromosomes (in trans). Finally, non-coding RNAs make a significant contribution to transcriptional and post-transcriptional gene silencing. Together, these advances contribute to an understanding of how gene expression programs are established, maintained and modified during development.

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Anti-viral RNA silencing: do we look like plants ?

Saumet

Lecellier

2006

Retrovirology

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The anti-viral function of RNA silencing was first discovered in plants as a natural manifestation of the artificial 'co-suppression', which refers to the extinction of endogenous gene induced by homologous transgene. Because silencing components are conserved among most, if not all, eukaryotes, the question rapidly arose as to determine whether this process fulfils anti-viral functions in animals, such as insects and mammals. It appears that, whereas the anti-viral process seems to be similarly conserved from plants to insects, even in worms, RNA silencing does influence the replication of mammalian viruses but in a particular mode: micro(mi)RNAs, endogenous small RNAs naturally implicated in translational control, rather than virus-derived small interfering (si)RNAs like in other organisms, are involved. In fact, these recent studies even suggest that RNA silencing may be beneficial for viral replication. Accordingly, several large DNA mammalian viruses have been shown to encode their own miRNAs. Here, we summarize the seminal studies that have implicated RNA silencing in viral infection and compare the different eukaryotic responses.

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Retraction

Cited by 5 publications

References 2 publications

The contradictory definitions of heterochromatin: transcription and silencing

The contradictory definitions of heterochromatin: transcription and silencing

Chromatin structure and gene regulation in T cell development and function

Anti-viral RNA silencing: do we look like plants ?

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