Insulators: many functions, many mechanisms.

By A. West, M. Gaszner, G. Felsenfeld. Genes & Development, 2002

683 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Eukaryotic genomes are organized into domains containing individual genes and gene clusters that have distinct patterns of expression both during development and in differentiated cells. These genomes contain regulatory elements such as enhancers that are able to activate target genes in cis over considerable distances. They may also contain extended regions of condensed chromatin capable of encroaching on adjacent domains to perturb gene expression. There are a number of ways in which individual domains could be maintained independent of their surroundings through the establishment of boundaries. These boundaries might be variable in position, and established through a balance between countervail

Subfields: Molecular Biology

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Citations in the corpus

Histone and chromatin cross-talk. (2003, background): “Other studies indicate that marks defining heterochromatin are dominant over euchromatic marks and that insulating elements (boundaries and insulators) prevent the spreading of repressive histone modification patterns from one chromatin domain to another ([77,78]; and see [79,80] for further referen”
Applied bioinformatics for the identification of regulatory elements (2004, background): “and new biochemical insights (for example, into the characteristics of insulator sequence”
Cohesins functionally associate with CTCF on mammalian chromosome arms. (2008, neutral): “CTCF is notable for its association with vertebrate imprinting control regions, insulators, and boundary elements, which are thought to partition the genome into independently regulated domains (West et al., 2002; Ohlsson et al., 2001).”
CTCF mediates long-range chromatin looping and local histone modification in the beta-globin locus. (2007, neutral): “CTCF (CCCTC-binding factor) is the prototype vertebrate protein exhibiting insulator activity (West et al. 2002) that can act as an enhancer blocker or as a barrier against repressive forces from nearby hetero-chromatin in vitro (Defossez and Gilson 2002; Recillas-Targa et al. 2002).”
CTCF mediates long-range chromatin looping and local histone modification in the β-globin locus (2006, neutral): “CTCF (CCCTC-binding factor) is the prototype vertebrate protein exhibiting insulator activity (West et al. 2002) that can act as an enhancer blocker or as a barrier against repressive forces from nearby heterochromatin in vitro (Defossez and Gilson 2002; RecillasTarga et al.”
Global analysis of the insulator binding protein CTCF in chromatin barrier regions reveals demarcation of active and repressive domains. (2008, background): “While several such proteins have been identified in Drosophila, the only major insulator-binding protein identified in vertebrates is CTCF (CCCTC-binding factor) (Bell et al. 1999; Gerasimova and Corces 2001; West et al. 2002; Felsenfeld et al. 2004).”
Looping and interaction between hypersensitive sites in the active beta-globin locus. (2002, background): “, 1987), or insulators/boundaries is not an absolute prerequisite for interaction, as pre(Kellum and Schedl, 1991; Dorsett, 1999; Gerasimova dicted only by the looping model. and Corces 2001; West et al., 2002) exert their effect on In addition, gene competition for a single regulator the process of”
The RNA polymerase II core promoter: a key component in the regulation of gene expression. (2002, background): “In addition to the core promoter, other cis-acting DNA sequences that regulate RNA polymerase II transcription include the proximal promoter, enhancers, silencers, and boundary/insulator elements (e.g., see Blackwood and Kadonaga 1998; Bulger and Groudine 1999; West et al. 2002).”
Insulators: exploiting transcriptional and epigenetic mechanisms (2006, background): “A variant that has been discussed at length elsewher”
DEEP: a general computational framework for predicting enhancers (2014, background): “On the other hand, silencers, repressors and insulators have practically negative effects on the cellular transcriptional output either through recruitment of transcriptional repressor proteins (7), or by preventing the spread of heterochromatin (8).”
A Mammalian enhancer trap resource for discovering and manipulating neuronal cell types (2016, background): “Most vertebrate insulators with barrier activity also have blocking activity (West et al., 2002).”