We report the case of a monochorionic twin gestation discordant for mutation in chromodomain-helicase-DNA-binding protein 7 (CHD7) gene and cerebral abnormalities consequent to an early devastating cerebrovascular event. The parents elected selective termination given poor prognosis this fetus, but socio-economic considerations wished defer procedure as late possible, despite awareness risks li...

piRNAs (PIWI-interacting RNAs), which are generally 24–32 nucleotides in length, are defined by their specific association to the PIWI subfamily of AGO/ PIWI family proteins. piRNAs are mainly made in animal gonads, and are essential to silence transposons during germline development [1]. In Drosophila, the genomic regions that transcribe piRNA precursors are named as piRNA clusters. The primar...

Polycomb group proteins are transcriptional repressors recruited to many developmental control genes. The specificity of polycomb group protein targeting is incompletely understood. Subunits of polycomb repressive complexes (PRC) are encoded by multigene families in vertebrates. Five chromodomain-containing CBX family proteins are thought to mediate chromatin association by PRC1 complexes. We v...

Chromodomains are found in many regulators of chromatin structure, and most of them recognize methylated lysines on histones. Here, we investigate the role of the Drosophila melanogaster protein Corto's chromodomain. The Enhancer of Trithorax and Polycomb Corto is involved in both silencing and activation of gene expression. Over-expression of the Corto chromodomain (CortoCD) in transgenic flie...

Chromatin remodelling is critical for repairing DNA damage and maintaining genomic integrity. Previous studies have reported that histone acetyltransferase p300 and ATP-dependent chromatin remodeler chromodomain helicase DNA-binding protein 4 (CHD4) functions, respectively, in DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) repair. But the physiological significance of their interaction remains elusive. Here, ...

Murine Chd1 (chromodomain helicase DNA-binding protein 1), a chromodomain-containing chromatin remodeling protein, is necessary for embryonic stem (ES) cell pluripotency. Chd1 binds to nucleosomes trimethylated at histone 3 Lys 4 (H3K4me3) near the beginning of active genes but not to bivalent domains also containing H3K27me3. To address the mechanism of this specificity, we reproduced H3K4me3-...

Although DNA replication has been thought to play an important role in the silencing of mating type loci in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, recent studies indicate that silencing can be decoupled from replication. In Schizosaccharomyces pombe, mating type silencing is brought about by the trans-acting proteins, namely Swi6, Clr1-Clr4, and Rhp6, in cooperation with the cis-acting silencers. The latter...

Canonical membrane protein biogenesis requires co-translational delivery of ribosome-associated proteins to the Sec translocase and depends on the signal recognition particle (SRP) and its receptor (SR). In contrast, high-throughput delivery of abundant light-harvesting chlorophyll a,b-binding proteins (LHCPs) in chloroplasts to the Alb3 insertase occurs post-translationally via a soluble trans...

CHD6, a member of the CHD family of DNA-binding, chromatin-modifying proteins, has been shown to be upregulated in glioblastoma. Using immunofluorescence the intracellular region to which CHD6 localizes can be determined. Through the use of chromatin Immunoprecipitation (ChIP), candidate genomic loci enriched for CHD6 can be determined. Immunofluorescence and ChIP results for CHD6 using a curre...