Chromatin remodeling in plants

In the past two years, a variety of forward genetic screens have revealed predicted plant chromatin remodeling components that are involved in either differential histone acetylation or ATP-dependent SWI2/SNF2-related complexes. Combined with the results of recent reverse genetic studies, these findings have begun to provide the groundwork for determining the function of chromatin-based control in plants.     

Chromatin remodeling and genome stability

A report on the 12th Tenovus Scotland Symposium 'Stability and Regulation of Genes and Genomes', Glasgow UK, 6-7 April 2006.     

Chromatin remodeling and human disease

In the past few years, there has been a nascent convergence of scientific understanding of inherited human diseases with epigenetics. Identified epigenetic processes involved in human disease include covalent DNA modifications, covalent histone modifications, and histone relocation. Each of these processes influences chromatin structure and thereby regulates gene expression and DNA methylation, replication, recombination, and repair. The importance of these processes for nearly all aspects of normal growth and development is illustrated by the array of multi-system disorders and neoplasias caused by their dysregulation.     

Chromatin remodeling and Rb activity

Progression of cells through the cell cycle is central to normal cell proliferation, and checkpoints that regulate this cycle are targets of tumorigenic mutations. One of these checkpoints is the Rb family of proteins that seems to regulate exit of cells from both G(1) and S phase of the cell cycle. Recent studies have linked the function of the Rb family to chromatin remodeling enzymes.