Chromatin remodeling
Dynamic structural changes to eukaryotic chromatin occurring throughout the cell division cycle. These changes range from the local changes necessary for transcriptional regulation to global changes necessary for chromosome segregation.
Chromatin remodeling is the dynamic modification of chromatin architecture to allow access of condensed genomic DNA to the regulatory transcription machinery proteins, and thereby control gene expression. Such remodeling is mainly carried out by 1) covalent histone modifications by specific enzymes, e.g., histone acetyltransferases (HATs), histone deacetylases (HDACs), methyltransferases, and kinases, and 2) ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling complexes which either move, eject or restructure nucleosomes. Besides actively regulating gene expression, dynamic remodeling of chromatin imparts an epigenetic regulatory role in several key biological processes, egg cells DNA replication and repair; apoptosis; chromosome segregation as well as development and pluripotency. Aberrations in chromatin remodeling proteins are found to be associated with human diseases, including cancer. Targeting chromatin remodeling pathways is currently evolving as a major therapeutic strategy in the treatment of several cancers.
Overview
The transcriptional regulation of the genome is controlled primarily at the preinitiation stage by binding of the core transcriptional machinery proteins (namely, RNA polymerase, transcription factors, activators and repressors) to the core promoter sequence on the coding region of the DNA. However, DNA is tightly packaged in the nucleus with the help of packaging proteins, chiefly histone proteins to form repeating units of nucleosomes which further bundle together to form condensed chromatin structure. Such condensed structure occludes many DNA regulatory regions, not allowing them to interact with transcriptional machinery proteins and regulate gene expression. To overcome this issue and allow dynamic access to condensed DNA, a process known as chromatin remodeling alters nucleosome architecture to expose or hide regions of DNA for transcriptional regulation.
By definition, chromatin remodeling is the enzyme-assisted process to facilitate access of nucleosomal DNA by remodeling the structure, composition and positioning of nucleosomes.
Classification
Access to nucleosomal DNA is governed by two major classes of protein complexes:
Covalent histone-modifying complexes.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Chromatin remodeling” is dynamic structural changes to eukaryotic chromatin occurring throughout the cell division cycle. These changes range from the local changes necessary for transcriptional regulation to global changes necessary for chromosome segregation. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Chromatin, remodeling and Dynamic, not as a finished interpretation.
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This entry incorporates text from “Chromatin remodeling” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.