Towards a predictive model of chromatin 3D organization

Architectural proteins mediate interactions between distant regions in the genome to bring together different regulatory elements while establishing a specific three-dimensional organization of the genetic material. Depletion of specific architectural proteins leads to miss regulation of gene expression and alterations in nuclear organization. The specificity of interactions mediated by architectural proteins depends on the nature, number, and orientation of their binding site at individual genomic locations. Knowledge of the mechanisms and rules governing interactions among architectural proteins may provide a code to predict the 3D organization of the genome. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.