Editor's Summary
13 December 2007
Jostling for position
The positioning of nucleosomes, the basic unit of chromatin, profoundly affects many DNA-dependent processes, but positioning mechanisms involved in cells are not well understood. Nucleosome positions on the whole genome of the yeast S. cerevisiae have now been determined using wild-type cells and a mutant for the chromatin regulator Isw2. The regulator functions at the 5' and 3' ends of genes to increase nucleosome density in hundreds of intergenic regions. Significantly, Isw2 facilitates transcription starting in the correct orientation from promoters by suppressing aberrant non-coding transcription.
News and Views: Molecular biology: Genome under surveillance
Decoding the information stored in DNA requires an intricate balance between processes that turn gene expression on or off. A protein that influences the packaging of DNA regulates this balance genome-wide.
Karen M. Arndt
doi:10.1038/450959a
Article: Chromatin remodelling at promoters suppresses antisense transcription
Iestyn Whitehouse, Oliver J. Rando, Jeff Delrow & Toshio Tsukiyama
doi:10.1038/nature06391
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (659K) | Supplementary information