Chromatin insulator bodies are nuclear structures that form in response to osmotic stress and cell death.

ABSTRACT: Chromatin insulators assist in the formation of higher-order chromatin structures by mediating long-range contacts between distant genomic sites. It has been suggested that insulators accomplish this task by forming dense nuclear foci termed insulator bodies that result from the coalescence of multiple protein-bound insulators. However, these structures remain poorly understood, particularly the mechanisms triggering body formation and their role in nuclear function. In this paper, we show that insulator proteins undergo a dramatic and dynamic spatial reorganization into insulator bodies during osmostress and cell death in a high osmolarity glycerol-p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase-independent manner, leading to a large reduction in DNA-bound insulator proteins that rapidly repopulate

SUBMITTER: Schoborg T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3718971 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature