Formation of Cell-Type-Associated Chromatin Configurations: A Hypothesis

摘要

More than 30 years ago, we published a hypothesis in which the 3-dimen- sional structure of entire chromatin fibres in a eukaryotic cell is named as chromatin configuration that determines the pattern of gene expression in each type of cell. Based on this hypothesis, cell differentiation is the process in which different types of cells are endowed with different chromatin configurations. Therefore, this chromatin configuration could also be named as cell-type-associated chromatin configuration. However, how this cell-type- associated chromatin configuration is formed during cell differ-entiation remains unknown. In this paper, we hypothesize that a group of unknown proteins might be involved in the formation of cell-type-associated chromatin configurations during cell differentiation.