Enhancer and super-enhancer:Positive regulators in gene transcription

摘要

Enhancer is a positive regulator for spatiotemporal development in eukaryotes. As a cluster, super-enhancer is closely related to cell identity- and fate-determined pro-cesses. Both of them function tightly depending on their targeted transcription fac-tors, cofactors, and genes through distal genomic interactions. They have been recognized as critical components and played positive roles in transcriptional regula-tory network or factory. Recent advances of next-generation sequencing have dra-matically expanded our ability and knowledge to interrogate the molecular mechanism of enhancer and super-enhancer for transcription. Here, we review the history, importance, advances and challenges on enhancer and super-enhancer field. This will benefit our understanding of their function mechanism for transcription underlying precise gene expression.