Chromatin protein dynamics (measured by fluorescence recovery) is fast in ES cells (white) but slower in differentiating (red) or differentiated (black) cells.

MISTELI/ELSEVIER

Chromatin has a staid and static image. But Eran Meshorer, Tom Misteli (National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD), and colleagues suggest that ES cells are kept pluripotent thanks to hyperactively mobile chromatin proteins.

Chromatin proteins provide architectural integrity to DNA. Despite their structural role, they do not stay statically bound but release and reform their bonds continuously. Using FRAP to measure protein dynamics, the group showed that chromatin proteins in differentiated cells are exchanged within minutes to hours, whereas ES cells contain a pool of such proteins that turns over at the rate of seconds. The fast-moving protein fraction is present in several types of pluripotent cells but strikingly absent in committed precursor cells. This quick exchange may be what keeps the genome...

The Rockefeller University Press
2006
The Rockefeller University Press
2006
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