heterochromatin

From Aaushi
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Introduction

That part of the chromatin that remains tightly coiled & condensed during interphase, thus stains easily. Most of genome occurs as transcriptionally inactive condensed chromatin of the type found in pericentromeric heterochromatin regions which is heavily methylated. DNA in the transcriptionally silent regions is packaged into compacted nucleosomes containing deacetylated histones, in particular deacetylated histone H3. Proteins contributing to transcriptionally repressed state include histone deacetylases & heterochromatin protein 1 homolog alpha

More general terms

More specific terms

Additional terms

References

  1. Stedman's Medical Dictionary 26th ed, Williams & Wilkins, Baltimore, 1995
  2. Jones & Baylin, Nature Reviews Genetics 3:415-28, 2002