Histone variants: dynamic punctuation in transcription

  1. Steven Henikoff1,3,4
  1. 1Division of Basic Sciences, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington 98109, USA;
  2. 2Molecular and Cellular Biology Program, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA;
  3. 3Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington 98109, USA

    Abstract

    Eukaryotic gene regulation involves a balance between packaging of the genome into nucleosomes and enabling access to regulatory proteins and RNA polymerase. Nucleosomes are integral components of gene regulation that restrict access to both regulatory sequences and the underlying template. Whereas canonical histones package the newly replicated genome, they can be replaced with histone variants that alter nucleosome structure, stability, dynamics, and, ultimately, DNA accessibility. Here we consider how histone variants and their interacting partners are involved in transcriptional regulation through the creation of unique chromatin states.

    Keywords

    Footnotes

    This article, published in Genes & Development, is available under a Creative Commons License (Attribution 4.0 International), as described at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0.

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