Department of Veterinary and Animal Science, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003, USA.
J Cell Physiol. 2011 Jul;226(7):1719-21. doi: 10.1002/jcp.22395.
Epigenetic regulation of gene expression has become relevant to nearly all areas of biomedical research. The emergence of technologies that allow for examination of the epigenome combined with identification of key protein complexes that mediate the myriad chromatin modifications that occur have greatly enhanced the versatility and efficacy of tools with which to study normal development and disease states. The evolutionarily conserved polycomb group genes (PcG) have been identified as a predominant mechanism by which gene silencing occurs during development, differentiation, and disease. While molecular events that target PcG complexes have been well defined in some non-vertebrate models, the details of locus specificity and functional diversity of mammalian PcG proteins have not yet unresolved. Here we discuss recent findings that offer novel mechanistic events and add complexity to our understanding of PcG function in vertebrates.
基因表达的表观遗传调控与几乎所有生物医学研究领域都相关。允许检查表观基因组的技术的出现，加上鉴定介导发生的无数染色质修饰的关键蛋白复合物，极大地增强了研究正常发育和疾病状态的工具的多功能性和功效。进化上保守的多梳组基因 (PcG) 已被确定为在发育、分化和疾病过程中发生基因沉默的主要机制。虽然 PcG 复合物的靶向分子事件在一些非脊椎动物模型中已经得到很好的定义，但哺乳动物 PcG 蛋白的基因座特异性和功能多样性的细节尚未解决。在这里，我们讨论了最近的发现，这些发现提供了新的机制事件，并增加了我们对脊椎动物中 PcG 功能的理解的复杂性。
