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3D GENOMICS

Chromatin architecture is a flexible foundation for gene expression

Nature Genetics volume 53, pages 426–427 (2021)Cite this article

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The structure of chromatin is associated with its function, but precisely how is unclear. New data show that the higher-order architecture of the genome is similar among cell types with widely variant fates and gene expression patterns, thus challenging the view that chromatin domains determine function in the genome.

Chromatin domains are the higher-order building blocks of genome organization. These domains are generally referred to as topologically associating domains (TADs). In the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, chromatin domains contain co-regulated genes and their enhancers, demarcated by insulator elements1,2. One proposed function of TADs has been that they restrict interactions between regulatory regions and their target genes and in this way determine which genes are expressed in which cells and when. Two studies in this issue, by Espinola et al.3 and Ing-Simmons et al.4, provide evidence for the growing idea that structure is not a strong determinant of gene activity but instead is merely a flexible foundation upon which regulatory mechanisms, such as transcription factors, act.

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Fig. 1: The emergence of chromatin domains.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA

    Tom Misteli & Elizabeth H. Finn

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  1. Tom Misteli
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  2. Elizabeth H. Finn
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Correspondence to Tom Misteli or Elizabeth H. Finn.

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Misteli, T., Finn, E.H. Chromatin architecture is a flexible foundation for gene expression. Nat Genet 53, 426–427 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-021-00813-2

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