Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Journal Club
  • Published:

Epigenetics

The double-edged sword of bivalency

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology volume 25, page 6 (2024)Cite this article

Subjects

The dawn of molecular biology in the twentieth century gave rise to a flurry of excitement in the early 2000s about the role of epigenetics. Next-generation sequencing meant it was now possible to read the DNA sequence of coding and non-coding regions with ease. The first histone modifiers were identified and implicated in gene regulation, and the ‘histone code’ hypothesis was proposed by Jenuwein and Allis to understand chromatin function.

Classical developmental biology had already shown the importance of chromatin modifiers in lineage commitment and tissue diversification from insects to mammals. The evidence collectively pointed to chromatin as a crucial regulatory layer in achieving correct timing and specificity in gene expression. But what really was the histone code and how did it work mechanistically?

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

Original articles

  • Bernstein, B. E. et al. A bivalent chromatin structure marks key developmental genes in embryonic stem cells. Cell 125, 315–326 (2006)

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Azuara, V. et al. Chromatin signatures of pluripotent cell lines. Nat. Cell Biol. 8, 532–538 (2006)

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Related article

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Stem Cell Chromatin Group, Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics, Berlin, Germany

    Aydan Bulut-Karslıoğlu

Authors
  1. Aydan Bulut-Karslıoğlu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Aydan Bulut-Karslıoğlu.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Bulut-Karslıoğlu, A. The double-edged sword of bivalency. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 25, 6 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41580-023-00665-0

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41580-023-00665-0

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing