David Martin, Cristina Pantoja, Ana Fernández Miñán, Christian Valdes-Quezada, Eduardo Moltó, Fuencisla Matesanz, Ozren Bogdanović, Elisa de la Calle-Mustienes, Orlando Domínguez, Leila Taher, Mayra Furlan-Magaril, Antonio Alcina, Susana Cañón, María Fedetz, María A Blasco, Paulo S Pereira, Ivan Ovcharenko, Félix Recillas-Targa, Lluís Montoliu, Miguel Manzanares, Roderic Guigó, Manuel Serrano, Fernando Casares, José Luis Gómez-Skarmeta
Many genomic alterations associated with human diseases localize in noncoding regulatory elements located far from the promoters they regulate, making it challenging to link noncoding mutations or risk-associated variants with target genes. The range of action of a given set of enhancers is thought to be defined by insulator elements bound by the 11 zinc-finger nuclear factor CCCTC-binding protein (CTCF). Here we analyzed the genomic distribution of CTCF in various human, mouse and chicken cell types, demonstrating the existence of evolutionarily conserved CTCF-bound sites beyond mammals...
June 2011: Nature Structural & Molecular Biology