RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Deciphering the histone code to build the genome structure
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 217190
DO 10.1101/217190
A1 Kirti Prakash
A1 David Fournier
YR 2017
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/11/20/217190.abstract
AB Histones are punctuated with small chemical modifications that alter their interaction with DNA. One attractive hypothesis stipulates that certain combinations of these histone modifications may function, alone or together, as a part of a predictive histone code to provide ground rules for chromatin folding. We consider four features that relate histone modifications to chromatin folding: charge neutralisation, molecular specificity, robustness and evolvability. Next, we present evidence for the association among different histone modifications at various levels of chromatin organisation and show how these relationships relate to function such as transcription, replication and cell division. Finally, we propose a model where the histone code can set critical checkpoints for chromatin to fold reversibly between different orders of the organisation in response to a biological stimulus.