How is gene expression regulated within the complex packaging of DNA? This review delves into the crucial role of histone acetyltransferases (HATs) in transcriptional regulation, exploring their mechanisms, regulation, and links to cellular processes. HATs are essential enzymes that modify histones, influencing gene accessibility and expression. The review discusses the discovery, substrate specificity, catalytic mechanism, and regulation of HATs. These enzymes are part of large, multisubunit complexes that target histones and other factors for acetylation, a modification positively linked to transcriptional activation. The involvement of HATs in cellular regulatory processes underlying normal development and differentiation, as well as abnormal processes leading to oncogenesis, are explored. While the functions and regulation of HATs are only beginning to be understood, this review underscores their far-reaching implications for human biology and disease. This provides a framework to better understand the connections to both cellular regulatory processes underlying normal development and differentiation, as well as abnormal processes that lead to oncogenesis.
Published in Annual Review of Biochemistry, this review on histone acetyltransferases aligns perfectly with the journal's focus on comprehensive overviews of key topics in biochemistry. By discussing the structure, function, and regulation of HATs, the paper contributes directly to the journal's existing body of research on chromatin modification, gene expression, and cellular regulation. Its scope and depth are consistent with the journal's mission.
| Category | Category Repetition |
|---|---|
| Science: Biology (General) | 503 |
| Science: Biology (General): Genetics | 345 |
| Science: Chemistry: Organic chemistry: Biochemistry | 305 |
| Science: Biology (General): Cytology | 284 |
| Medicine: Medicine (General) | 209 |