转录因子:基因书签的关键参与者

Transcription factor: one of the critical players in mitotic bookmarking

为什么肝细胞复制后依然还是肝细胞,肺细胞复制后还是肺细胞?子细胞如何在有丝分裂结束后重建母细胞的转录模式?谁来充当阅读遗传信息之书的书签?近些年研究发现,此前人们深信不疑的转录因子在有丝分裂过程中从染色质上剥离的结论并不准确,越来越多的研究表明,有丝分裂过程中部分染色质处于开放状态,转录因子并不从染色质中剥离,提示转录因子可作为基因书签。本文介绍了基因书签这一表观遗传学新内容的定义,给出了几个转录因子作为基因书签的具体案例,并介绍了系统地揭示转录因子作为基因书签的最近研究进展,希望能为从事表观遗传学研究或对表观遗传学感兴趣的同仁提供全面且通俗的解读。

Why is liver cell still liver cell, and lung cell still lung cell after mitosis？ How does daughter cell reestablish the mother＇s transcription pattern？ Who could work as bookmarkers for reading the book of genetic information？ Recent studies have challenged the previous conclusion that transcription factors are dissolved from mitotic chromatin, and emerging evidences have shown that specific chromatins regions are still accessible for transcription factors during mitosis, thus indicating that transcription factors could function as gene bookmarkers. In this brief review, I introduced the definition of gene bookmarking--the novel aspect of epigenetics, then gave several cases of transcription-factor-mediated gene bookmarking, as well as the systematical researches on it, hoping to provide a comprehensive interpretation of gene bookmarking for those who are working on or interested in it.