REST: Transcriptional and Epigenetic Regulator

Abstract

Acquisition and maintenance of cell fate and potential are dependent on the complex interplay of extracellular signaling, gene regulatory networks and epigenetic states. During embryonic development, embryonic stem cells become progressively more restricted along specific lineages, ultimately giving rise to the diversity of cell types in the adult mammalian organism. Recent years have seen major advances in our understanding of the mechanisms that regulate the underlying transcriptional programmes during development. In particular, there has been a significant increase in our knowledge of how epigenetic marks on chromatin can regulate transcription by generating more or less permissive chromatin conformations. This article focuses on how a single transcription factor, repressor element-1 silencing transcription factor, can function as both a transcriptional and epigenetic regulator, controlling diverse aspects of development. We will discuss how the elucidation of repressor element-1 silencing transcription factor function in both normal and disease conditions has provided valuable insights into how the epigenome and transcriptional regulators might cooperatively orchestrate correct development.

KEYWORDS::

• chromatin
• chromatin immunoprecipitation
• CNS development and disease
• epigenome
• histone deacetylases
• Huntington‘s disease
• next-generation sequencing
• REST/NRSF
• transcriptome

Acknowledgements

The author apologises for omission of many important references due to space constraints for this article. The author would like to thank Noel Buckley for discussion and commentary on this manuscript and for allowing mention of our unpublished data.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

Work in the author‘s laboratory is supported by the Wellcome Trust. The author has no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

Work in the author‘s laboratory is supported by the Wellcome Trust. The author has no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed. No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.