Evolving Models of Heterochromatin: From Foci to Liquid Droplets

Antonis Tatarakis; Reza Behrouzi; Danesh Moazed

doi:10.1016/j.molcel.2017.08.022

Evolving Models of Heterochromatin: From Foci to Liquid Droplets

Mol Cell. 2017 Sep 7;67(5):725-727. doi: 10.1016/j.molcel.2017.08.022.

Authors

Antonis Tatarakis¹, Reza Behrouzi¹, Danesh Moazed²

Affiliations

¹ Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Cell Biology, Harvard medical School, 240 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
² Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Cell Biology, Harvard medical School, 240 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA. Electronic address: danesh_moazed@hms.harvard.edu.

PMID: 28886332
DOI: 10.1016/j.molcel.2017.08.022

Abstract

Two recent papers (Larson et al., 2017; Strom et al., 2017) in Nature propose that heterochromatic domains are organized into phase-separated liquid compartments. Here we highlight the main findings that support the liquid-like nature of HP1 domains and discuss their functional implications in gene silencing and genome organization.

MeSH terms

Chromosomal Proteins, Non-Histone / genetics*
Gene Silencing
Heterochromatin*

Substances

Chromosomal Proteins, Non-Histone
Heterochromatin