Softcover

ISBN 10: 0127619135 ISBN 13: 9780127619132

Publisher: Academic Press, 1995

The impact of chromatin structure on gene activity and many other nuclear events has become increasingly apparent over the past four years. Tremendous progress has been made concerning the structure and function of the nucleoprotein structures regulating transcription, replication, and repair within the eukaryotic chromosome. Important recent advances include the determination of the internal organization of the nucleosome. Findings indicate the histones have unexpected structural similarities to known transcription factors. Similar structures point to similar functions and emphasize the importance of considering both the architectural roles of histones and transcription factors in regulatory complexes. Genetic experiments have introduced a whole new significance both to the histones and to other proteins that control long-range chromosomal compaction and regulate differential gene activity. Modifications to the Second Edition now incorporate such new discoveries into the framework of established knowledge. However, the principle aim remains to introduce interested scientists to chromatin.
Chromatin: Structure and Function provides the reader with a concise and coherent account of the nature, structure, and assembly of chromatin and its involvement in the processes of DNA transcription, replication, and repair. Constantly interrelating the structure of eurkaryotic DNA with the nuclear processes it undergoes, this book is a must for students and molecular biologists who want to really understand how DNA works.

From the Back Cover:

Chromatin is the basic structural matrix of the eukaryotic chromosome and understanding its structure and function is essential to fully comprehend the mechanisms of gene regulation and the replication and recombination of DNA in higher organisms.
This Third Edition ofChromatin: Structure and Function brings the reader up-to-date with the remarkable progress in chromatin research over the past three years. It has been extensively rewritten to cover new material on chromatin remodeling, histone modification, nuclear compartmentalization, DNA methylation, and transcriptional co-activators and co-repressors. Also featured in this third edition are 60 new illustrations.
Written in a clear and concise fashion, Chromatin: Structure and Function is essential reading for advanced undergraduates, postgraduates and newcomers to the fields of biochemistry, cell biology, and molecular genetics.

About the Author:

Alan P. Wolffe is Chief of the Laboratory of Molecular Embryology and of the Section on Molecular Biology at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. He was educated in the UK, studying biochemistry at Oxford and completing graduate research with the Medical Research Council in London before moving to the United States. After a post-doctoral fellowship funded by the European Molecular Biology Organization at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, Dr. Wolffe joined the National Institutes of Health in 1988. His research interests include the earliest events in vertebrate development, with respect to the mechanisms through which nucleic acid binding proteins influence gene expression.