The importance of genome architecture for cell identity

How cells acquire different identities has long fascinated biologists. During cell development and differentiation, environmental cues trigger signal transduction pathways that result in the activation of specific transcription factors. These in turn determine the epigenetic landscape and gene expression program characteristic of each cell type.

Recent technological advances in the study of 3D chromatin folding have brought cell-specific genome conformation to the fore. A hotly debated topic is the role of chromatin architecture in gene expression: is it only a by-product of changes in transcription or does it have an informational value in itself?

In a review in the May 16 issue of Nature, the researchers Ralph Stadhouders, CRG Alumni now at Erasmus MC, in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, Guillaume Filion and Thomas Graf, of the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), in Barcelona, Spain, discuss recent evidence, including a study performed at the CRG, indicating that it goes both ways: the continuous interplay between genome conformation and transcriptional changes is a driving force for cell-fate decisions. Understanding how the genome folds within the tiny space of the nucleus and how this differs between specialized cells has profound implications for developmental disorders and cancer.

For more information and interviews, please, contact:  Gloria Lligadas, Head of Communications & PR, Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) – gloria.lligadas@crg.eu  – Tel. +34 933160153 – Mobile +34608550788

Reference: Stadhouders R, Filion G, Graf T. "Transcription factors and 3D genome conformation in cell-fate decisions." Nature, 569:345–354 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1182-7

Funding acknowledgements: Guillaume Filion and Thomas Graf are supported by the European Research Council under the 7th Framework Programme FP7/2007-2013 (ERC Synergy Grant 4D-Genome, grant agreement 609989). Ralph Stadhouders is supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (VENI 91617114) and an Erasmus MC Fellowship.