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Heterochromatin is a tightly packed form of DNA or condensed DNA, which comes in multiple varieties. These varieties lie on a continuum between the two extremes of constitutive heterochromatin and facultative heterochromatin. Both play a role in the expression of genes.
The regions that stain darker are regions of constitutive heterochromatin. [4] The constitutive heterochromatin stains darker because of the highly condensed nature of the DNA. Constitutive heterochromatin is not to be confused with facultative heterochromatin, which is less condensed, less stable, and much less polymorphic, and which does not ...
S/MAR-functions: constitutive and facultative. A chromatin domain with constitutive S/MARs at its termini (I). When functional demands require the specific translocation of the constituent gene to the matrix, facultative S/MARs responds to topological changes which are initiated by the association of transcription factors (TF) and supported by histone acetylation.
The level of nucleosomal packaging can have profound consequences on all DNA-mediated processes including gene regulation. Euchromatin (loose or open chromatin) structure is permissible for transcription whereas heterochromatin (tight or closed chromatin) is more compact and refractory to factors that need to gain access to the DNA template.
Heterochromatin is further separated into facultative and constitutive heterochromatin, the former of which is found in DNA sequences that code for developmental proteins. Non-coding repetitive DNA associated with specific chromosomal locations, such as centromeres and telomeres, is referred to as constitutive heterochromatin.
A constitutive gene is a gene that is transcribed continually as opposed to a facultative gene, which is only transcribed when needed. A housekeeping gene is a gene that is required to maintain basic cellular function and so is typically expressed in all cell types of an organism. Examples include actin, GAPDH and ubiquitin. Some housekeeping ...
The family of heterochromatin protein 1 (HP1) ("Chromobox Homolog", CBX) consists of highly conserved proteins, which have important functions in the cell nucleus.These functions include gene repression by heterochromatin formation, transcriptional activation, regulation of binding of cohesion complexes to centromeres, sequestration of genes to the nuclear periphery, transcriptional arrest ...
According to this model, the heterochromatin forces an altered chromatin conformation on the euchromatic region. Due to this, the transcriptional machinery cannot access the gene which leads to the inhibition of transcription. [5] In other words, the heterochromatin spreads and causes gene silencing by packaging the normally euchromatic region. [2]