Enhancers and phase separation in the control of gene expression

Gene regulation underlies the control of cell identity, development, and disease. Transcription of genes is regulated by DNA elements called enhancers, which are bound by transcription factors and coactivators, leading to the recruitment of RNA polymerase II and the production of RNA. Enhancers are thought to loop to specific gene promoters to stimulate transcription, but the mechanisms that cause enhancers to selectively loop to specific gene promoters is not well understood. In this thesis, I first describe new insights into enhancer-promoter loop specificity from studies examining the mechanisms that allow tumor-specific super-enhancers to loop to the MYC oncogene in diverse cancer types (Schuijers and Manteiga et al., 2018). While conducting these studies, it was proposed that super-enhancers and the factors associated with them form liquid-liquid phase-separated condensates.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctoral

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biology

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2020

Author dc:creator

• Manteiga, John C.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Richard A. Young.

• Biology.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses may be protected by copyright. Please reuse MIT thesis content according to the MIT Libraries Permissions Policy, which is available through the URL provided.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/127697

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/127697