V.V. Ogryzko, R.L. Schiltz, V. Russanova, B.H. Howard, Y. Nakatani, "The transcriptional coactivators p300 and CBP are histone acetyltransferases," Cell , 87:953-9, 1996. (Cited in more than 143 publications to date)

Comments by Vasily V. Ogryzko, Laboratory of Molecular Growth Regulation, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

NEW TOOLS: NICHD investigators Vasily Ogryzko and Yoshihiro Nakatani used acetylation to begin to gain some insight into how chromatin is activated for transcription.
It's the stuff of high school biology. Eukaryotic genomes are tightly packed into chromatin, which is made up of nucleosomes that are, in turn, composed of a complex of DNA and proteins (mostly proteins called histones). Until recently, however, researchers had little insight into how transcription factors are able to gain access to this highly condensed DNA to initiate the most fundamental of cell processes: transcription.

Looking for answers, scientists hypothesized that perhaps acetylation of histones is...

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of

Receive full access to digital editions of The Scientist, as well as TS Digest, feature stories, more than 35 years of archives, and much more!