Courtesy of Jason Brickner
Scientists have noted chromatin's nonrandom distribution in the nucleus for more than a century,1 and many since have sought to explain correlations between a gene's physical location and its activity. Recent studies explore the role the nuclear envelope and its associated structures may play in regulating transcription, and what they find runs counter to some common conceptions.
Heterochromatin is often found in close proximity to the nuclear envelope, with telomeres tethered to the nuclear periphery interacting with the nuclear pore. Placing genes near telomeres or artificially tethering them to the pores results in silence. But actively transcribed genes have been seen to preferentially associate with the components of the nuclear pore complex (NPC) as well. Some researchers even argue that pre-assembled transcriptional machinery resides at these nuclear exits, and that genes are activated through contact with them – a phenomenon dubbed "reverse recruitment."2
"I think the ...
