TY - JOUR
T1 - How Polycomb-Mediated Cell Memory Deals With a Changing Environment
AU - Marasca, Federica
AU - Bodega, Beatrice
AU - Orlando, Valerio
N1 - KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2021-02-19
Acknowledgements: Beatrice Bodega and Valerio Orlando contributed equally to this work. We thank Chiara Lanzuolo and Alice Cortesi for helpful comments and criticisms on the manuscript. The work is supported by EPIGEN Italian flagship program (to BB), Istituto Nazionale di Genetica Molecolare to BB and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) to VO.
PY - 2018/3/9
Y1 - 2018/3/9
N2 - Cells and tissues are continuously exposed to a changing microenvironment, hence the necessity of a flexible modulation of gene expression that in complex organism have been achieved through specialized chromatin mechanisms. Chromatin-based cell memory enables cells to maintain their identity by fixing lineage specific transcriptional programs, ensuring their faithful transmission through cell division; in particular PcG-based memory system evolved to maintain the silenced state of developmental and cell cycle genes. In evolution the complexity of this system have increased, particularly in vertebrates, indicating combinatorial and dynamic properties of Polycomb proteins, in some cases even overflowing outside the cell nucleus. Therefore, their function may not be limited to the imposition of rigid states of genetic programs, but on the ability to recognize signals and allow plastic transcriptional changes in response to different stimuli. Here, we discuss the most novel PcG mediated memory functions in facing and responding to the challenges posed by a fluctuating environment.
AB - Cells and tissues are continuously exposed to a changing microenvironment, hence the necessity of a flexible modulation of gene expression that in complex organism have been achieved through specialized chromatin mechanisms. Chromatin-based cell memory enables cells to maintain their identity by fixing lineage specific transcriptional programs, ensuring their faithful transmission through cell division; in particular PcG-based memory system evolved to maintain the silenced state of developmental and cell cycle genes. In evolution the complexity of this system have increased, particularly in vertebrates, indicating combinatorial and dynamic properties of Polycomb proteins, in some cases even overflowing outside the cell nucleus. Therefore, their function may not be limited to the imposition of rigid states of genetic programs, but on the ability to recognize signals and allow plastic transcriptional changes in response to different stimuli. Here, we discuss the most novel PcG mediated memory functions in facing and responding to the challenges posed by a fluctuating environment.
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10754/627331
UR - http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bies.201700137/full
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85043388400&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/bies.201700137
DO - 10.1002/bies.201700137
M3 - Article
C2 - 29522656
AN - SCOPUS:85043388400
VL - 40
SP - 1700137
JO - BioEssays
JF - BioEssays
SN - 0265-9247
IS - 4
ER -