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Mechanisms of distant enhancer action on DNA and in chromatin

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Abstract

Enhancers and insulators are regulatory DNA sequences that can work over a large distance. Efficient action over a distance clearly requires special mechanisms for facilitating communication between a regulatory region and its target. Studies from our laboratory identified DNA supercoiling as primary factor that mediates efficient enhancer-promoter communication over a distance in prokaryotes through a “DNA slithering” mechanism. These studies allowed rational design and construction of an insulator that can block enhancer action over a distance both in vitro and in vivo. Our most recent studies suggest that eukaryotic chromatin structure can support action over a distance using similar principles, but in a mechanistically distinct way.

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  1. Department of Pharmacology, UMDNJ, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, 675 Hoes Lane, Room 405, Piscataway, NJ, 08854, USA

    V. M. Studitsky

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Published in Russian in Molekulyarnaya Biologiya, 2009, Vol. 43, No. 2, pp. 204–214.

The article was translated by the author.

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Studitsky, V.M. Mechanisms of distant enhancer action on DNA and in chromatin. Mol Biol 43, 188–197 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0026893309020022

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