Bhargava Purnima
Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Uppal Road, Hyderabad 500007, India.
Biochim Biophys Acta. 2013 Oct;1829(10):1015-25. doi: 10.1016/j.bbagrm.2013.05.005. Epub 2013 Jun 1.
Chromatin participates actively in all DNA transactions and all phenomena directly under the influence of chromatin are explained by epigenetic mechanisms. The genes transcribed by RNA polymerase (pol) III are generally found in regions free of nucleosomes, the structural units of chromatin. Yet, histone modifications and positions of nucleosomes in the gene flanking regions have been reported to show direct correlation with activity status of these genes. Gene-specific as well as genome-wide studies have also revealed association of several epigenetic components with pol III-transcribed genes. This review presents a summary of the research in past many years, which have gathered enough evidence to conclude that pol III-transcribed genes are important components of an epigenome.
染色质积极参与所有的DNA事务，并且所有直接受染色质影响的现象都由表观遗传机制来解释。RNA聚合酶（pol）III转录的基因通常位于无核小体（染色质的结构单位）的区域。然而，据报道，基因侧翼区域的组蛋白修饰和核小体位置与这些基因的活性状态直接相关。基因特异性以及全基因组范围的研究也揭示了几种表观遗传成分与pol III转录基因的关联。这篇综述总结了过去多年的研究，这些研究已经收集了足够的证据得出结论：pol III转录基因是表观基因组的重要组成部分。
