First published online September 20, 2006
Journal of Cell Science 119, 1901e (2006)
© The Company of Biologists Limited
Brief encounters in the nucleus
To understand transcription in the context of the nuclear environment, researchers need to know when and where transcription factors bind to chromatin in living cells and how this affects chromatin structure and gene expression. On p. 4101, Michael Mancini and colleagues provide new insights into how estrogen receptor 
(ER), a hormone-regulated transcription factor, regulates transcription by directly visualizing its interaction with an array of promoter and enhancer elements integrated into the prolactin gene. They use high-throughput microscopy to show that ligand-dependent transcription at the array correlates with its state of condensation. Photobleaching experiments indicate that the interaction of ER with the array is extremely short lived. Furthermore, the authors find that the interaction of other factors involved in transcription (for example, ER cofactors) with the array influences both large-scale chromatin modelling and the dynamics of ER binding. Their results support a model of nuclear function in which transcription complexes assemble stochastically and are highly transient in nature.
Related articles in JCS:
- Estrogen-receptor- exchange and chromatin dynamics are ligand- and domain-dependent
- Z. Dave Sharp, Maureen G. Mancini, Cruz A. Hinojos, Fangyan Dai, Valeria Berno, Adam T. Szafran, Kelly P. Smith, Tanmay T. Lele, Donald E. Ingber, and Michael A. Mancini
JCS 2006 119: 4101-4116.
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