Junk DNA: goodbye!: Super enhancers (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, November 14, 2014, 00:38 (3445 days ago) @ David Turell
edited by dhw, Friday, November 14, 2014, 08:21

More useful stretches of non-coding DNA:-"Increases or decreases in transcription—as dictated by a regulatory stretch of DNA called an enhancer, which serves as a binding site for transcription factors and associated proteins—can produce an aberrant composition of proteins, metabolites, and signaling molecules that drives pathologic states. Identifying the root causes of these changes may lead to new therapeutic approaches for many different diseases. -"Although few therapies for human diseases aim to alter gene expression, the outstanding examples—including antiestrogens for hormone-positive breast cancer, antiandrogens for prostate cancer, and PPAR-? agonists for type 2 diabetes—demonstrate the benefits that can be achieved through targeting gene-control mechanisms. Now, thanks to recent papers from laboratories at MIT, Harvard, and the National Institutes of Health, researchers have a new, much bigger transcriptional target: large DNA regions known as super-enhancers or stretch-enhancers. Already, work on super-enhancers is providing insights into how gene-expression programs are established and maintained, and how they may go awry in disease. Such research promises to open new avenues for discovering medicines for diseases where novel approaches are sorely needed. -"Super-enhancers cover stretches of DNA that are 10- to 100-fold longer and about 10-fold less abundant in the genome than typical enhancer regions (Cell, 153:307-19, 2013). They also appear to bind a large percentage of the transcriptional machinery compared to typical enhancers, allowing them to better establish and enforce cell-type specific transcriptional programs"-http://www.the-scientist.com//?articles.view/articleNo/41281/title/Enhanced-Enhancers/