Daghsni Marwa, Aldiri Issam
Department of Ophthalmology, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States.
Department of Developmental Biology, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States.
Front Genet. 2021 Oct 25;12:775205. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2021.775205. eCollection 2021.
Regulation of gene expression by chromatin structure has been under intensive investigation, establishing nuclear organization and genome architecture as a potent and effective means of regulating developmental processes. The substantial growth in our knowledge of the molecular mechanisms underlying retinogenesis has been powered by several genome-wide based tools that mapped chromatin organization at multiple cellular and biochemical levels. Studies profiling the retinal epigenome and transcriptome have allowed the systematic annotation of putative cis-regulatory elements associated with transcriptional programs that drive retinal neural differentiation, laying the groundwork to understand spatiotemporal retinal gene regulation at a mechanistic level. In this review, we outline recent advances in our understanding of the chromatin architecture in the mammalian retina during development and disease. We focus on the emerging roles of non-coding regulatory elements in controlling retinal cell-type specific transcriptional programs, and discuss potential implications in untangling the etiology of eye-related disorders.
染色质结构对基因表达的调控一直是深入研究的课题，确立了核组织和基因组架构作为调节发育过程的有力且有效的手段。我们对视网膜生成背后分子机制的认识大幅增长，这得益于多种基于全基因组的工具，这些工具在多个细胞和生化水平上绘制了染色质组织图谱。对视网膜表观基因组和转录组进行分析的研究，使得与驱动视网膜神经分化的转录程序相关的假定顺式调控元件得以系统注释，为从机制层面理解视网膜基因的时空调控奠定了基础。在本综述中，我们概述了在发育和疾病过程中对哺乳动物视网膜染色质结构理解的最新进展。我们聚焦于非编码调控元件在控制视网膜细胞类型特异性转录程序中的新作用，并讨论其在理清眼相关疾病病因方面的潜在意义。
