The House & Garden guide to chromatin remodelling

In our gene-centred society, a chromosome is often regarded merely as an accomodation for genes, providing replication, segregation and other housekeeping functions for its many residents. The transcription of genes garners nearly all of our attention, and we tend to consider the customized gene-by-gene regulation of transcription to be the key to development and physiology. During the past few years, however, the importance of chromosomes and chromatin in the regulation of gene expression has come to the fore, with the recognition that chromatin remodelling and histone acetylation influence transcription1. This has been revealed in large part by genetic interactions between genes encoding subunits of remodelling complexes and their targets2, 3. And yet genes account for only a minor percentage of the eukaryotic genome; non-genic regions are similarly packaged into nucleosomes. Focus on gene-based processes may obscure the generality of nucleosome displacement for maintaining and packaging chromosomes