Journal
HEREDITY
Volume 94, Issue 6, Pages 571-576Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/sj.hdy.6800669
Keywords
insulators; barriers; nuclear organization; gene regulation
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The properties of cis-regulatory elements able to influence gene transcription over large distances have led to the hypothesis that elements called insulators should exist to limit the action of enhancers and silencers. During the last decades, insulators have been identified in many eukaryotes from yeast to human. Insulators possess two main properties: (i) they can block enhancer - promoter communication ('enhancer blocker activity'), and ( ii) they can prevent the spread of repressive chromatin ('barrier activity'). This review focuses on recent studies designed to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of the insulator function, and gives an overview of the critical role of insulators in nuclear organization and functional identity of chromatin.
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