Cohesin binds more (black) between convergent genes but less (gray) in the middle of active genes.

Uhlmann/Macmillan

Rings of cohesin hold together sister chromatids. Armelle Lengronne, Frank Uhlmann (Cancer Research UK, London, UK), Katsuhiko Shirahige (Tokyo Institute of Technology, Yokohama, Japan), and colleagues now suggest that cohesin rings get pushed to their final resting places by transcription complexes.

Cohesins are known to bind a heterochromatin protein at centromeres, but previous reports of cohesin localization on chromosome arms were incomplete. The authors did a comprehensive survey of four budding yeast chromosomes and two fission yeast chromosomes using chromatin immunoprecipitation. In budding yeast, 91% of cohesin sites were between converging genes, and cohesins were bound to 84% of the 328 convergent intergene regions.

Earl Glynn, Jennifer Gerton (Stowers Institute, Kansas City, MO) and colleagues gathered similar data for budding yeast. They suggest that transcription displaces cohesin from...

The Rockefeller University Press
2004
The Rockefeller University Press
2004
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