Next-Gen Reappraisal of Interactions Within a Cancer-Associated Protein Complex
Wednesday, January 15, 2014 - 17:01
in Biology & Nature
At a glance, DNA is a rather simple sequence of A, G, C, T bases, but once it is packaged by histone proteins into an amalgam called chromatin, a more complex picture emerges. Histones, which come in four subtypes--H2A, H2B, H3, and H4--can either coil DNA into inaccessible silent regions or untwist it to allow gene expression. To further complicate things, small chemical flags, such as methyl groups, affect whether histones silence or activate genes.