Brown Christopher R, Silver Pamela A
Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, 200 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Curr Opin Genet Dev. 2007 Apr;17(2):100-6. doi: 10.1016/j.gde.2007.02.005. Epub 2007 Feb 20.
The nonrandom spatial distribution of chromosomes and genes in the eukaryotic nucleus has been appreciated for decades, although a detailed understanding of the functional role of such positioning has remained illusive. The most prominent structural feature of the nucleus is the nuclear periphery, classically considered as a zone of gene repression caused by the presence of heterochromatin and silencing factors. However, several recent studies have uncovered dynamic associations between nuclear pore complexes embedded in the nuclear membrane and actively transcribed genes. These interactions, mediated by DNA, RNA and proteins, add an additional level of control to eukaryotic gene expression. The existence of a peripheral transcriptional activation zone in the nucleus suggests that the spatial organization of the genome plays a significant role in transcriptional regulation.
几十年来，人们已经认识到真核细胞核中染色体和基因的非随机空间分布，尽管对这种定位的功能作用的详细理解仍然难以捉摸。细胞核最显著的结构特征是核周边，传统上被认为是由异染色质和沉默因子的存在导致基因抑制的区域。然而，最近的几项研究发现了嵌入核膜的核孔复合体与活跃转录基因之间的动态关联。这些由DNA、RNA和蛋白质介导的相互作用为真核基因表达增加了额外的控制层面。细胞核中存在外周转录激活区表明基因组的空间组织在转录调控中起着重要作用。
