Breathing Chromatin in Pluripotent Stem Cells

Only a few factors controlling stem cell pluripotency have been identified to date, and we do not yet fully understand how they act to maintain pluripotency and control differentiation. A report in this issue of Developmental Cell (Meshorer et al., 2006) describes a new trait of pluripotent cells: hyperdynamic or “breathing” chromatin. According to this report, hyperdynamic chromatin is both specific and functionally relevant for pluripotent cells