Ram Edupuganti V S Raghu, Meshorer Eran
Department of Genetics, The Institute of Life Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91904, Israel.
Genes Dev. 2009 Dec 15;23(24):2793-8. doi: 10.1101/gad.1881609.
Embryonic stem (ES) cells possess a globally open, decondensed chromatin structure that, together with trans-acting factors, supports transcriptional competence of developmentally regulated genes. However, our understanding of the mechanisms that establish transcriptional competence of specific genes is limited. In this issue of Genes & Development, Xu and colleagues (pp. 2824-2838) show that tissue-specific enhancers are actively marked by an unmethylated window in ES cells and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. They propose a model and present supporting evidence to demonstrate the active involvement of pioneer transcription factors in this process. This work marks an important step toward the understanding of the mechanisms that define and maintain pluripotency, and calls for the identification of the factors that participate in the establishment of transcriptional competence in pluripotent cells.
胚胎干细胞(ES细胞)具有全局开放、解聚的染色质结构,该结构与反式作用因子一起,支持发育调控基因的转录活性。然而,我们对建立特定基因转录活性机制的理解仍然有限。在本期《基因与发育》中,徐及其同事(第2824 - 2838页)表明,组织特异性增强子在ES细胞和诱导多能干细胞(iPS细胞)中被一个未甲基化窗口积极标记。他们提出了一个模型并提供了支持证据,以证明先驱转录因子在此过程中的积极参与。这项工作标志着在理解定义和维持多能性机制方面迈出了重要一步,并呼吁鉴定参与多能细胞转录活性建立的因子。