In this episode of the Epigenetics Podcast, we caught up with Dr. Ken Zaret, Professor in the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, to talk about his work on pioneer transcription factors and their influence on chromatin structure.
Embryonic development is a complex process that needs to be tightly regulated. Multiple regulatory factors contribute to proper development, including a family of specialized regulatory proteins called "pioneer factors." Our guest Dr. Ken Zaret found that these pioneer factors are among the first proteins to bind to chromatin during development and that they can prime important regulatory genes for activation at a later developmental stage. Furthermore, he and his team showed that there might be a "pre-pattern" that exists in cells that determines their developmental fate.
Pioneer factors are not only important in embryonic development, they can also help restart transcription after mitosis. Dr. Zaret and his colleagues demonstrated that FoxA stays bound to chromosomes during mitosis, leading to a rapid reactivation of essential genes at the exit of mitosis.
In this interview, we discuss the story behind how Dr. Zaret discovered pioneer transcription factors like FoxA, how these factors are influenced by the chromatin environment, and how they function.
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The Impact of Sequence Variation on Transcription Factor Binding (Sven Heinz)
Comparing CUT&Tag to ENCODE ChIP-Seq in Alzheimer's Disease Samples (Sarah Marzi)
The Role of Hat1p in Chromatin Assembly (Mark Parthun)
The Impact of Paternal Diet on Offspring Metabolism (Upasna Sharma)
H3K36me3, H4K16ac and Cryptic Transcription in Ageing (Weiwei Dang)
Split-Pool Recognition of Interactions by Tag Extension (SPRITE) (Mitch Guttman)
MLL Proteins in Mixed-Lineage Leukemia (Yali Dou)
Sex-biased Imprinting and DNA Regulatory Landscapes During Reprogramming (Sam Buckberry)
BET Proteins and Their Role in Chromosome Folding and Compartmentalization (Kyle Eagen)
Epigenetic Underpinnings of Human Addiction (Francesca Telese & Jessica Zhou)
H3K79 Methylation, DOT1L, and FOXG1 in Neural Development (Tanja Vogel)
Function of Insulators in 3D Genome Folding (Maria Gambetta)
Contribution of the Estrogen Receptor to Breast Cancer Progression (Jason Carroll)
Inheritance of Transcriptional Memory by Mitotic Bookmarking (Sheila Teves)
Differential Methylated Regions in Autism Spectrum Disorders (Janine La Salle)
DNA Damage in Longevity and Ageing (Björn Schumacher)
The Impact of Chromatin Modifiers on Disease Development and Progression (Capucine van Rechem)
Long-Range Transcriptional Control by 3D Chromosome Structure (Luca Giorgetti)
Transgenerational Inheritance and Epigenetic Imprinting in Plants (Mary Gehring)
When is a Peak a Peak? (Claudio Cantù)
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