Chromatin and Gene Regulation

Written in an informal and accessible style, Chromatin and Gene Regulation enables the reader to understand the science of this rapidly moving field. Chromatin is a fundamental component in the network of controls that regulates gene expression. Many human diseases have been linked to disruption of these control processes by genetic or environmental factors, and unravelling the mechanisms by which they operate is one of the most exciting and rapidly developing areas of modern biology. Chromatin is central both to the rapid changes in gene transcription by which cells respond to changes in their environment and also to the maintenance of gene expression patterns from one cell generation to the next. This book will be an invaluable guide to undergraduate and postgraduate students in the biological sciences and all those with an interest in the medical implications of aberrant gene expression.

Prologue. . 1. Controlling transcription: shared aims and common mechanisms. . 2. Transcription in eukaryotes: the problems of complexity. . 3. The nucleosome: chromatin's structural unit. . 4. Histone tails: modifications and epigenetic information. . 5. Higher-order chromatin structures and nuclear organisation. . 6. Transcription in a chromatin environment. . 7. How the transcription machinery deals with chromatin. . 8. Chromatin remodelling machines. . 9. Heterochromatin. . 10. Long-term silencing of gene expression. . 11. Cellular memory and imprinting. . 12. Mechanisms of dosage compensation