{"id":14450,"date":"2018-10-15T17:02:14","date_gmt":"2018-10-15T15:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.embl.de\/?p=14450"},"modified":"2024-03-22T11:12:00","modified_gmt":"2024-03-22T10:12:00","slug":"transcription-factors-controlled-by-dna-sequence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/transcription-factors-controlled-by-dna-sequence\/","title":{"rendered":"Transcription factors controlled by DNA sequence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In cells, DNA exists in a highly compact form. The scaffolding that enables this packaging of the DNA is made of proteins known as histones. More than 50 years ago, it became apparent that chemical modifications to these proteins are associated with gene activation. One example of such a modification is acetylation \u2013 the addition of an acetyl chemical group. However, precisely how cellular signals initiate this modification remained unclear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To reveal the underlying mechanism, a team led by Daniel Panne \u2013 a former group leader at EMBL Grenoble<\/a> \u2013 combined biochemical and structural studies with molecular modelling. They studied p300, an enzyme that transfers acetyl groups and regulates cell growth and division. \u201cWe need to understand how cell signals control the activity of enzymes and how this plays a role in gene regulation,\u201d says Panne. The team found out that transcription factors \u2013 proteins that control the expression of genes \u2013 are the mediators between acetylation and cellular signalling. Transcription factors are known to control where in the genome particular genes are expressed and when. Now, the scientists have discovered that the sequence of the DNA determines where the histone is acetylated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nature<\/em> publishes the results on 15 Oct 2018. This work was a collaboration involving scientists from EMBL, the Institute for Advanced Biosciences<\/a> in Grenoble (CNRS\/INSERM\/Universit\u00e9 GRENOBLE-ALPES), and Washington University<\/a>, St. Louis, USA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EMBL scientists gain mechanistic insights into how cellular signalling controls gene regulation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":63,"featured_media":14460,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17591],"tags":[537,39,664,37,699,539,44],"embl_taxonomy":[],"class_list":["post-14450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science","category-science-technology","tag-dna","tag-epigenetics","tag-genome","tag-grenoble","tag-panne","tag-research-highlight","tag-transcription"],"acf":{"article_intro":"

EMBL scientists gain mechanistic insights into how cellular signalling controls gene regulation<\/p>\n","related_links":[{"link_description":"Panne group","link_url":"https:\/\/www2.le.ac.uk\/institutes\/liscb\/research-groups\/structural-biology-of-signal-transduction-and-epigenetic-gene-regulation"},{"link_description":"Linking DNA modification and gene expression","link_url":"https:\/\/news.embl.de\/science\/1601-single-cell\/"},{"link_description":"Futures: Genome regulation","link_url":"https:\/\/news.embl.de\/science\/futures-understanding-gene-regulation\/"}],"article_sources":[{"source_description":"

Esther Ortega et al.<\/em>, Transcription factor dimerization activates the p300 acetyltransferase, Nature<\/em>,\u00a0published online 15 October 2018. DOI: 10.1038\/s41586-018-0621-1<\/p>\n","source_link_url":"http:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1038\/s41586-018-0621-1"}],"vf_locked":false,"featured":false,"color":"#007B53"},"embl_taxonomy_terms":[],"yoast_head":"\nTranscription factors controlled by DNA sequence | EMBL<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"EMBL scientists gain mechanistic insights into how cellular signalling controls gene regulation.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/transcription-factors-controlled-by-dna-sequence\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Transcription factors controlled by DNA sequence | EMBL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"EMBL scientists gain mechanistic insights into how cellular signalling controls gene 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