Department of Cell Biology, Erasmus MC, 3000 CA Rotterdam, The Netherlands; email:
Department of Pulmonary Medicine, Erasmus MC, 3000 CA Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Annu Rev Genomics Hum Genet. 2021 Aug 31;22:127-146. doi: 10.1146/annurev-genom-122220-093818. Epub 2021 May 5.
Accurate control of gene expression in the right cell at the right moment is of fundamental importance to animal development and homeostasis. At the heart of gene regulation lie the enhancers, a class of gene regulatory elements that ensures precise spatiotemporal activation of gene transcription. Mammalian genomes are littered with enhancers, which are frequently organized in cooperative clusters such as locus control regions and superenhancers. Here, we discuss our current knowledge of enhancer biology, including an overview of the discovery of the various enhancer subsets and the mechanistic models used to explain their gene regulatory function.
准确控制基因在正确的细胞和正确的时刻表达，对动物的发育和内稳态至关重要。基因调控的核心是增强子，这是一类基因调控元件，可确保基因转录的精确时空激活。哺乳动物基因组中散布着增强子，它们经常以合作簇的形式存在，如基因座控制区和超级增强子。在这里，我们讨论了我们目前对增强子生物学的认识，包括对各种增强子亚类的发现概述，以及用于解释其基因调控功能的机制模型。
