Histone-Modifying Enzymes: Regulators of Developmental Decisions and Drivers of Human Disease

Abstract

Precise transcriptional networks drive the orchestration and execution of complex developmental processes. Transcription factors possessing sequence-specific DNA binding properties activate or repress target genes in a step-wise manner to control most cell lineage decisions. This regulation often requires the interaction between transcription factors and subunits of massive protein complexes that bear enzymatic activities towards histones. The functional coupling of transcription proteins and histone modifiers underscores the importance of transcriptional regulation through chromatin modification in developmental cell fate decisions and in disease pathogenesis.

KEYWORDS::

• cancer
• chromatin
• development
• differentiation
• histone modifications
• next-generation sequencing
• pluripotency

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank H Graham and B Atanassov for helpful comments on the manuscript. The authors would also like to thank Y Geng and L Gann from the Research Medical Library at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (TX, USA) for their assistance with literature searches.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

This work was supported by the Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) RP100429 and by the NIH GM067718 (to SYR Dent). A Schibler is supported by the Schissler Fellowship in Genetics of Human Disease. The authors have 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

This work was supported by the Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) RP100429 and by the NIH GM067718 (to SYR Dent). A Schibler is supported by the Schissler Fellowship in Genetics of Human Disease. The authors have 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.