Restoring the silenced Friedreich's ataxia gene through unconventional means
Cells can switch off genes by tightly packaging DNA around proteins called histones. However, scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have discovered that under certain conditions, this packaging acts more like molasses than a solid, allowing a specially designed chemical adapter to shut...
Image: Phys.org
Cells can switch off genes by tightly packaging DNA around proteins called histones. However, scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have discovered that under certain conditions, this packaging acts more like molasses than a solid, allowing a specially designed chemical adapter to shuttle gene-activating proteins through the packaging to the silenced gene inside. In addition, the researchers showed that this process reactivates the gene frataxin, which is abnormally silenced in the neurodegenerative disease Friedreich's ataxia. The study, published today in Nature Cell Biology, challenges a longstanding assumption that histone chemical modifications operate in a simple "on" or "off" binary manner.
Originally published at Phys.org
