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Perspectives
Epigenetic Information in Chromatin: the Code of Entry for DNA Repair
Joanna I. Loizou, Rabih Murr, Martin G. Finkbeiner, Carla Sawan, Zhao-Qi Wang and Zdenko Herceg
volume 5 | issue 7
1 april 2006Pages: 696 - 701
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Epigenetic changes are important etiological factors of human cancer. Epigenetic information in chromatin (known as 'histone code') is a fascinating feature used by cells to extend and modulate the genetic (DNA) code. The histone code is thus proposed to be 'read' by cells to regulate accessibility to, and functions of, chromatin DNA. While the role of the epigenetic code involving chromatin modifying/remodeling complexes in transcriptional regulation is well established, it is only recently that these mechanisms have been implicated in DNA damage detection and DNA repair. However, how the components of the DNA damage sensing and repair machinery gain access to broken DNA in compacted chromatin remains a mystery. Recent studies in this field provide important insights into DNA damage-specific and DNA repair-specific modifications to histones and encourage us that the epigenetic code in chromatin during DNA repair will be understood in terms of precisely defined players and mechanisms.
We now provide open access to journal articles published online for one year or more. This article may be downloaded at the following link:
Download PDF If the document does not open, please right-click on the link (control-click on a Macintosh) and select the option to save the file to disk.