Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen, Germany.
Laboratory of Gene Regulation, MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, Radcliffe Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Curr Opin Genet Dev. 2021 Apr;67:18-24. doi: 10.1016/j.gde.2020.10.003. Epub 2020 Nov 19.
The mammalian globin gene clusters provide a paradigm for studying the relationship between genome structure and function. As blood stem cells undergo lineage specification and differentiation to form red blood cells, the chromatin structure and expression of the α-globin cluster change. The gradual activation of the α-globin genes in well-defined cell populations has enabled investigation of the structural and functional roles of its enhancers, promoters and boundary elements. Recent studies of gene regulatory processes involving these elements at the mouse α-globin cluster have brought new insights into the general principles underlying the three-dimensional structure of the genome and its relationship to gene expression throughout time.
哺乳动物珠蛋白基因簇为研究基因组结构与功能的关系提供了范例。随着血液干细胞向红细胞谱系特化和分化，α-珠蛋白基因簇的染色质结构和表达发生变化。α-珠蛋白基因在明确的细胞群中的逐渐激活，使得对其增强子、启动子和边界元件的结构和功能作用的研究成为可能。最近对涉及这些元件的基因调控过程的研究，使人们对基因组三维结构及其与随时间变化的基因表达的关系的一般原理有了新的认识。
