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Revolution in the Polycomb hierarchy

Traditionally, maintenance of gene silencing by the Polycomb group proteins has been thought to involve recruitment of Polycomb repressive complex (PRC) 1 by PRC2-mediated trimethylation of K27 on histone H3. Three recent studies challenge this model by demonstrating that monoubiquitination of histone H2A, which is catalyzed by PRC1 complexes, can recruit PRC2 and potentiate its catalytic activity.

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Figure 1: Hierarchical models for recruitment of Polycomb group complexes to target genes.
Figure 2: Mechanisms underlying recruitment of Polycomb group proteins to target genes.

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Correspondence to Kristian Helin.

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I.C. declares no competing financial interests. K.H. is a cofounder of EpiTherapeutics Aps, is a member of the EpiTherapeutics board of directors and has shares and warrants in the company.

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Comet, I., Helin, K. Revolution in the Polycomb hierarchy. Nat Struct Mol Biol 21, 573–575 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nsmb.2848

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