Poised chromatin in the mammalian germ line
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Page3Lesch_Page_Development2014[2].pdf
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480.22 KB
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Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
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Author(s)
Lesch, B. J.
Page, David C
Date Issued
September 2014
Journal
Development
Publisher
Company of Biologists
Citation
Lesch, B. J., and D. C. Page. “Poised Chromatin in the Mammalian Germ Line.” Development 141.19 (2014): 3619–3626.
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
Poised (bivalent) chromatin is defined by the simultaneous presence of histone modifications associated with both gene activation and repression. This epigenetic feature was first observed at promoters of lineage-specific regulatory genes in embryonic stem cells in culture. More recent work has shown that, in vivo, mammalian germ cells maintain poised chromatin at promoters of many genes that regulate somatic development, and that they retain this state from fetal stages through meiosis and gametogenesis. We hypothesize that the poised chromatin state is essential for germ cell identity and function. We propose three roles for poised chromatin in the mammalian germ line: prevention of DNA methylation, maintenance of germ cell identity and preparation for totipotency. We discuss these roles in the context of recently proposed models for germline potency and epigenetic inheritance.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biology
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Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.113027
