Source: The Rockefeller University
Date: March 10, 2010
Summary:
The journey from embryonic stem cell to a fully developed liver, heart or muscle cell requires not only the right genes, but genes that are turned on and off at the right time — a job that is handled in part by DNA-packaging proteins known as histones. But it turns out that not all histones are created equally. New research from Rockefeller University shows that minute variations between histones play an important role in determining how and when genes are read. The findings, reported this week in the journal Cell, hint at an unimagined complexity of the genome and may open a new avenue of investigation regarding the mysterious causes of the human genetic disease known as ATR-X syndrome.
