Position effect variegation in yeast

✍ Scribed by Kenneth D. Tartof

• Book ID: 101713268
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1994
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 284 KB
• Volume: 16
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0265-9247
• DOI: 10.1002/bies.950161004

✦ Synopsis

Classically, position effect variegation has been studied in Drosophila and results when a euchromatic gene is placed adjacent to either centromeric heterochromatin or to a telomeric domain. In such a circumstance expression of the locus variegates, being active in some cells and silent in others. Over the last few years a comparable phenomenon in yeast has been discovered. This system promises to tell us much about this curious behavior. Indeed, experiments reported recently(') indicate that the variegation of a yeast telomeric gene is cell-cycle regulated. The results suggest the following model. During DNA replication there is a disassembly of chromatin that allows a competition between silencing factors and transactivators to take place. Thus, reassembly of the domain may result in either the repression or the expression of the affected gene and, hence, produce a variegating phenotype.