Guthmann, Burton, Torres-Padilla: Expression and phase separation potential of heterochromatin proteins ...
EMBO reports, 2019
16.10.2019
Expression and phase separation potential of heterochromatin proteins during early mouse development
Manuel Guthmann, Adam Burton and Maria-Elena Torres-Padilla
EMBO reports Vol. 20(12), 5 December 2019, https://doi.org/10.15252/embr.201947952
(Manuel Guthmann is a doctoral researcher – and IRTG member – in Maria-Elena Torres-Padilla's lab.)
Abstract cited from paper:
In most eukaryotes, constitutive heterochromatin is associated with H3K9me3and HP1a. The latter has been shown to play a role in heterochromatin formation through liquid–liquid phase separation. However, many other proteins are known to regulate and/or interact with constitutive heterochromatic regions in several species. We postulate that some of these heterochromatic proteins may play a role in the regulation of heterochromatin formation by liquid–liquid phase separation. Indeed, an analysis of the constitutive heterochromatin proteome shows that proteins associatedwith constitutive heterochromatin are significantly more disordered than a random set or a full nucleome set of proteins. Interestingly, their expression begins low and increases during preimplantation development. These observations suggest that the preimplantation embryo is a useful model to address the potential role for phase separation in heterochromatin formation, anticipating exciting research in the years to come.