2007 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Roles of chromatin structure in regulation of gene activity
| Project/Area Number |
18570158
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Molecular biology
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| Research Institution | Tohoku University |
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Principal Investigator |
KOMURA Jun-ichiro Tohoku University, Tohoku University, Graduate School of Medicine, Assistant Professor (10215410)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2006 – 2007
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| Keywords | chromatin structure / gene activity |
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| Research Abstract |
During mitosis in higher eukaryotic cells, transcription is silenced and transcription complexes are absent from promoters in the condensed chromosomes; however, epigenetic information concerning the pattern of expressed and silent genes must be preserved. Recently it has been reported that CTCF, a major protein in vertebrate insulator elements, then it is possible that epigenetic information through the mitotic phase, and help guide the reconstitution of domain structure and nuclear organization after the completion of this phase. We have studied the chromatin structure of the insulator upstream of the c-MYC gene in mitotic HeLa cells. The region of the insulator corresponds to the DNase I hypersensitive site I, but Southern analysis revealed that hypersensitivity was lost during motosis. High resolution in vivo footprinting analysis using dimethyl sulfate, UV, psoralen, and DNase I also demonstrated the disappearance of the sequence-specific direct binding of CTCF and the absence of detectable structures during mitosis. Thus, it appears that the nucleoprotein complex involving this insulator element must be reassembled de novo with each new cell generation.
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