European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Genome Biology Unit, Meyerhofstraße 1, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany.
Trends Genet. 2021 Sep;37(9):798-806. doi: 10.1016/j.tig.2021.03.008. Epub 2021 Apr 20.
About 7% of the human genome encodes cis-regulatory elements (CREs) that function as regulatory switches to modulate the expression of genes. These short genetic sequences control the complex transcriptional changes necessary for organismal development. A topical challenge in the field is to understand how transcription factors (TFs) read and translate this information into gene expression patterns. Here, I review how the development of single-molecule footprinting (SMF) that resolves the genome occupancy of TFs on individual DNA molecules resolution contributes to our ability to establish how the regulatory genetic information is interpreted at the mechanistic level. I further discuss how future developments in the nascent field of single-molecule genomics (SMG) could impact our understanding of gene regulation mechanisms.
人类基因组约有 7%编码顺式调控元件 (CREs)，这些元件作为调控开关，调节基因的表达。这些短的遗传序列控制着生物体发育所需的复杂转录变化。该领域的一个热门挑战是了解转录因子 (TFs) 如何读取和翻译这些信息，以形成基因表达模式。在这里，我回顾了单分子足迹法 (SMF) 的发展如何有助于我们确定调控遗传信息如何在机制水平上被解释。我还进一步讨论了单分子基因组学 (SMG) 这一新兴领域的未来发展如何影响我们对基因调控机制的理解。
