Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology, University of Edinburgh, Michael Swann Building, Max Born Crescent, The King's Buildings, Edinburgh EH9 3BF, UK.
Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol. 2016 Apr;17(4):257-62. doi: 10.1038/nrm.2015.31. Epub 2016 Feb 3.
'Epigenome' refers to the panoply of chemical modifications borne by DNA and its associated proteins that locally affect genome function. Epigenomic patterns are thought to be determined by external constraints resulting from development, disease and the environment, but DNA sequence is also a potential influence. We propose that domains of relatively uniform DNA base composition may modulate the epigenome through cell type-specific proteins that recognize short, frequent sequence motifs. Differential recruitment of epigenomic modifiers may adjust gene expression in multigene blocks as an alternative to tuning the activity of each gene separately, thus simplifying gene expression programming.
“表观基因组”是指 DNA 及其相关蛋白质所携带的化学修饰的总称，这些修饰会局部影响基因组的功能。表观基因组模式被认为是由发育、疾病和环境等外部因素决定的，但 DNA 序列也可能有潜在影响。我们提出，相对均匀的 DNA 碱基组成区域可能通过细胞类型特异性蛋白来调节表观基因组，这些蛋白可以识别短而频繁的序列基序。不同的表观遗传修饰物的募集可能会调整多基因块中的基因表达，作为替代单独调节每个基因的活性的方法，从而简化基因表达编程。
