Nature Communications (Jun 2022)

The chromatin remodeller ATRX facilitates diverse nuclear processes, in a stochastic manner, in both heterochromatin and euchromatin

  • Julia Truch,
  • Damien J. Downes,
  • Caroline Scott,
  • E. Ravza Gür,
  • Jelena M. Telenius,
  • Emmanouela Repapi,
  • Ron Schwessinger,
  • Matthew Gosden,
  • Jill M. Brown,
  • Stephen Taylor,
  • Pak Leng Cheong,
  • Jim R. Hughes,
  • Douglas R. Higgs,
  • Richard J. Gibbons

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-31194-7
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 13, no. 1
pp. 1 – 16

Abstract

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The chromatin remodeling complex ATRX can promote gene expression, for example by binding G-quadruplexes (G4s) to prevent their negative effect on expression. Here the authors use a single-cell approach to show that only a subset of erythroid cells isolated from patients with ATRX mutations have reduced chromatin accessibility and alpha globin expression, suggesting a stochastic process.