Chd1 Regulation of Chromatin May be Key for Embryonic Stem Cell
Pluripotency While it is widely accepted that embryonic stem
cells (ESCs) have the ability to become any type of cell, the
molecular causes for this characteristic are still under much
investigation, although one suspected player is chromatin.
Recently, more evidence has been reported to support the
important role of chromatin structure in maintaining an
undifferentiated state in ESCs; the specific protein involved is
called Chd1 (Gaspar-Maia et al., 2009). Chromatin structure
plays an important role in regulating what genes are created, or
expressed, in a given cell. In eukaryote organisms (almost all
large organisms, such as animals, plants, and fungi, but not
bacteria), DNA forms a complex with proteins that are called
histones. This complex of DNA and histones is called chromatin
(see figure). Histones act as spools for the DNA to be spun
around, binding to DNA and packaging it into tightly coiled
units (without histones, the long DNA strands