HP1 proteins are essential for a dynamic nuclear response that rescues the function of perturbed heterochromatin in primary human cells.

ABSTRACT: Cellular information is encoded genetically in the DNA nucleotide sequence and epigenetically by the "histone code," DNA methylation, and higher-order packaging of DNA into chromatin. Cells possess intricate mechanisms to sense and repair damage to DNA and the genetic code. However, nothing is known of the mechanisms, if any, that repair and/or compensate for damage to epigenetically encoded information, predicted to result from perturbation of DNA and histone modifications or other changes in chromatin structure. Here we show that primary human cells respond to a variety of small molecules that perturb DNA and histone modifications by recruiting HP1 proteins to sites of altered pericentromeric heterochromatin. This response is essential to maintain the HP1-binding kinetochore protein hMis

SUBMITTER: Zhang R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1800672 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature