My favourite molecule: Polyamines, chromatin structure and transcription

✍ Scribed by Harry R. Matthews

• Book ID: 102760928
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1993
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 764 KB
• Volume: 15
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0265-9247
• DOI: 10.1002/bies.950150811

✦ Synopsis

Nucleosomes are the basic elements of chromatin structure. Polyamines, such as spermine and spermidine, are small ubiquitous molecules absolutely required for cell growth. Photoaffinity polyamines bind to specific locations in nucleosomes and can change the helical twist of DNA in nucleosomes. Acetylation of polyamines reduces their affinity for DNA and nucleosomes, thus the helical twist of DNA in nucleosomes could be regulated by cells through acetylation. I suggest that histone and polyamine acetylation act synergistically to modulate chromatin structure. On naked DNA, the photoaffinity spermine bound preferentially to a specific 'TATA' sequence element, suggesting that polyamines may be involved in the unusual chromatin structure in this region. Fnrther work is needed to test whether the specificities shown by photoaffinity polyamines are also shown by cellular polyamines; such experiments are now feasible.