Maintenance of genome integrity, cell division and gene expression have all been shown to be regulated by the condensation of DNA into heterochromatin. In a study published in this issue, Bulut-Karslioglu et al. reveal a new heterochromatin function for transcription factors in a mammalian system. They show that instead of activating gene expression, in the context of heterochromatic repeats, specific transcription factors are necessary for the maintenance of transcriptional repression and heterochromatin.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$189.00 per year
only $15.75 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Bulut-Karslioglu, A. et al. Nat. Struct. Mol. Biol. 19, 1023–1030 (2012).
Hiragami, K. & Festenstein, R. Cell. Mol. Life Sci. 62, 2711–2726 (2005).
Bannister, A.J. et al. Nature 410, 120–124 (2001).
Lachner, M., O'Carroll, D., Rea, S., Mechtler, K. & Jenuwein, T. Nature 410, 116–120 (2001).
Dillon, N. & Festenstein, R. Trends Genet. 18, 252–258 (2002).
Festenstein, R. & Kioussis, D. Curr. Opin. Genet. Dev. 10, 199–203 (2000).
Volpe, T.A. et al. Science 297, 1833–1837 (2002).
Cléard, F., Delattre, M. & Spierer, P.S.U. EMBO J. 16, 5280–5288 (1997).
Jia, S., Noma, K. & Grewal, S.I. Science 304, 1971–1976 (2004).
Nan, X., Meehan, R.R. & Bird, A. Nucleic Acids Res. 21, 4886–4892 (1993).
Koch, C. & Stratling, W.H. Biochemistry 43, 5011–5021 (2004).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Festenstein, R., Chan, J. Context is everything: activators can also repress. Nat Struct Mol Biol 19, 973–975 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nsmb.2401
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nsmb.2401