EvoChromo: towards a synthesis of chromatin biology and evolution

Ines A Drinnenberg; Frédéric Berger; Simon J Elsässer; Peter R Andersen; Juan Ausió; Wendy A Bickmore; Alexander R Blackwell; Douglas H Erwin; James M Gahan; Brandon S Gaut; Zachary H Harvey; Steven Henikoff; Joyce Y Kao; Siavash K Kurdistani; Bernardo Lemos; Mia T Levine; Karolin Luger; Harmit S Malik; José M Martín-Durán; Catherine L Peichel; Marilyn B Renfree; Kinga Rutowicz; Peter Sarkies; Robert J Schmitz; Ulrich Technau; Joseph W Thornton; Tobias Warnecke; Kenneth H Wolfe

doi:10.1242/dev.178962

EvoChromo: towards a synthesis of chromatin biology and evolution

Development. 2019 Sep 26;146(19):dev178962. doi: 10.1242/dev.178962.

Authors

Ines A Drinnenberg¹, Frédéric Berger², Simon J Elsässer³, Peter R Andersen⁴, Juan Ausió⁵, Wendy A Bickmore⁶, Alexander R Blackwell⁷, Douglas H Erwin⁸, James M Gahan⁹, Brandon S Gaut¹⁰, Zachary H Harvey¹¹, Steven Henikoff¹², Joyce Y Kao^{13

14}, Siavash K Kurdistani¹⁵, Bernardo Lemos¹⁶, Mia T Levine¹⁷, Karolin Luger¹⁸, Harmit S Malik¹², José M Martín-Durán¹⁹, Catherine L Peichel²⁰, Marilyn B Renfree²¹, Kinga Rutowicz²², Peter Sarkies²³, Robert J Schmitz²⁴, Ulrich Technau²⁵, Joseph W Thornton²⁶, Tobias Warnecke²³, Kenneth H Wolfe²⁷

Affiliations

¹ Institut Curie, Paris Sciences et Lettres Research University, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique UMR 3664, Paris 75005, France ines.drinnenberg@curie.fr frederic.berger@gmi.oeaw.ac.at.
² Gregor Mendel Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna BioCenter, Dr. Bohr-Gasse 3, 1030 Vienna, Austria ines.drinnenberg@curie.fr frederic.berger@gmi.oeaw.ac.at.
³ Science for Life Laboratory, Division of Translational Medicine and Chemical Biology, Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm 17177, Sweden.
⁴ Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (IMBA), Vienna BioCenter (VBC), Dr. Bohrgasse 3, 1030 Vienna, Austria.
⁵ Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, V8W 3P6, Canada.
⁶ Medical Research Council Human Genetics Unit, Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH4 2XU, UK.
⁷ Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EA, UK.
⁸ Department of Paleobiology, MRC-121, National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC 20013-7012, USA.
⁹ Sars Centre for Marine Molecular Biology, University of Bergen, Thormøhlensgt. 55, 5008 Bergen, Norway.
¹⁰ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697, USA.
¹¹ Department of Chemical and Systems Biology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
¹² Division of Basic Sciences and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA 98109, USA.
¹³ Center for Genomics and Systems Biology, New York University, 12 Waverly Place, New York, NY 10003, USA.
¹⁴ Institute of Molecular Systems Biology, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zürich, Otto-Stern-Weg 3, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland.
¹⁵ Department of Biological Chemistry, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
¹⁶ Program in Molecular and Integrative Physiological Sciences, Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
¹⁷ Department of Biology, Epigenetics Institute, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
¹⁸ Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Department of Biochemistry, CU Boulder, Boulder, CO 80303, USA.
¹⁹ Queen Mary University of London, School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, UK.
²⁰ Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, 3012 Bern, Switzerland.
²¹ School of BioSciences, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, 3010 VIC, Australia.
²² Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology, Zurich-Basel Plant Science Center, University of Zurich, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland.
²³ MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences and Institute of Clinical Sciences, IMperial College London, Du Cane Road, London W12 0NN, UK.
²⁴ Department of Genetics, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA.
²⁵ Department for Molecular Evolution and Development, Centre of Organismal Systems Biology, University of Vienna, Vienna A-1090, Austria.
²⁶ Department of Human Genetics, and Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637 USA.
²⁷ Conway Institute and School of Medicine, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland.

Abstract

Over the past few years, interest in chromatin and its evolution has grown. To further advance these interests, we organized a workshop with the support of The Company of Biologists to debate the current state of knowledge regarding the origin and evolution of chromatin. This workshop led to prospective views on the development of a new field of research that we term 'EvoChromo'. In this short Spotlight article, we define the breadth and expected impact of this new area of scientific inquiry on our understanding of both chromatin and evolution.

Keywords: Chromatin; EvoChromo; Evolution.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
Review

MeSH terms

Animals
Chromatin / genetics*
Evolution, Molecular*
Genome
Humans

Substances

Chromatin

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Substances

Grants and funding