Recent progress and challenges in single-cell imaging of enhancer-promoter interaction

Liang-Fu Chen; Joo Lee; Alistair Boettiger

doi:10.1016/j.gde.2023.102023

Recent progress and challenges in single-cell imaging of enhancer-promoter interaction

Curr Opin Genet Dev. 2023 Apr:79:102023. doi: 10.1016/j.gde.2023.102023. Epub 2023 Feb 26.

Authors

Liang-Fu Chen¹, Joo Lee², Alistair Boettiger³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical and Systems Biology, Stanford University, USA.
² Department of Developmental Biology, Stanford University, USA.
³ Department of Developmental Biology, Stanford University, USA. Electronic address: [email protected].

PMID: 36854248
DOI: 10.1016/j.gde.2023.102023

Abstract

In the past two years, approaches relying on high-resolution microscopy and live-cell imaging have increasingly contributed to our understanding of the 3D genome organization and its importance for transcriptional control. Here, we describe recent progress that has highlighted how flexible and heterogeneous 3D chromatin structure is, on the length scales relevant to transcriptional control. We describe work that has investigated how robust transcriptional outcomes may be derived from such flexible organization without the need for clearly distinct structures in active and silent cells. We survey the latest state of the art in directly observing the dynamics of chromatin interactions, and suggest how some recent, apparently contradictory conclusions may be reconciled.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Review

MeSH terms

Animals
Chromatin / genetics
Chromatin / metabolism
Enhancer Elements, Genetic* / genetics
Gene Expression Regulation
Humans
Promoter Regions, Genetic* / genetics
Single-Cell Analysis* / methods
Time Factors
Transcription, Genetic

Substances

Chromatin