Nucleation and spreading of a heterochromatic domain in fission yeast.

ABSTRACT: Outstanding questions in the chromatin field bear on how large heterochromatin domains are formed in space and time. Positive feedback, where histone-modifying enzymes are attracted to chromosomal regions displaying the modification they catalyse, is believed to drive the formation of these domains; however, few quantitative studies are available to assess this hypothesis. Here we quantified the de novo establishment of a naturally occurring ∼20-kb heterochromatin domain in fission yeast through single-cell analyses, measuring the kinetics of heterochromatin nucleation in a region targeted by RNAi and its subsequent expansion. We found that nucleation of heterochromatin is stochastic and can take from one to ten cell generations. Further silencing of the full region takes another one to te

SUBMITTER: Obersriebnig MJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4865850 | biostudies-literature | 2016 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature