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Cells
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Heterochromatin and Tumorigenesis II
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Heterochromatin and Tumorigenesis II

A special issue of Cells (ISSN 2073-4409). This special issue belongs to the section "Cell Nuclei: Function, Transport and Receptors".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 October 2023) | Viewed by 4532

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Florence Cammas

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
IRCM, Cancer Research Institute of Montpellier, INSERM, U1194, 34298 Montpellier, France
Interests: chromatin; heterochromatin; cancer; HP1; senescence; transcriptional regulation; retrotransposons
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Heterochromatin, the “dark side” of the genome, has long been considered an inert storage site for useless DNA sequences; however, there is increasing evidence that this chromatin compartment is essential for many nuclear functions, including chromosome segregation, regulation of gene expression and of DNA replication, and repair. Heterochromatin, which is mainly composed of repetitive sequences including retrotransposons, is characterized by a high level of compaction, an enrichment of the histone mark H3K9me3 and of the chromatin associated proteins HP1 (Heterochromatin Protein 1), and an extremely limited level of transcriptional activity. Many studies have shown that changing the equilibrium of the different heterochromatin components has devastating consequences in particular in the development of cancers. Several lines of evidence support the view that heterochromatin could prevent tumor development by promoting cellular senescence and by silencing retrotransposon activity. A better understanding of how heterochromatin is acting in regulating tumor development is an exciting and particularly active field of research.

This Special Issue aims to summarize the current knowledge regarding the role of heterochromatin in cancer development and how targeting components essential for its establishment and/or maintenance could lead to therapeutic breakthroughs for cancer treatment.

Dr. Florence Cammas
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Cells is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Published Papers (2 papers)

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18 pages, 2399 KiB  
Article
Characterization of Hepatoma-Derived Growth Factor-Related Protein 2 Interactions with Heterochromatin
by Sarah C. Wistner, Ian A. MacDonald, Karly A. Stanley and Nathaniel A. Hathaway
Cells 2023, 12(2), 325; https://doi.org/10.3390/cells12020325 - 14 Jan 2023
Viewed by 2005
Abstract
The expression of genetic information is tightly controlled by chromatin regulatory proteins, including those in the heterochromatin gene repression family. Many of these regulatory proteins work together on the chromatin substrate to precisely regulate gene expression during mammalian development, giving rise to many [...] Read more.
The expression of genetic information is tightly controlled by chromatin regulatory proteins, including those in the heterochromatin gene repression family. Many of these regulatory proteins work together on the chromatin substrate to precisely regulate gene expression during mammalian development, giving rise to many different tissues in higher organisms from a fixed genomic template. Here we identify and characterize the interactions of two related heterochromatin regulatory proteins, heterochromatin protein 1 alpha (HP1α) and M-phase phosphoprotein 8 (MPP8), with hepatoma-derived growth factor-related protein 2 (HRP2). We find in biochemical experiments that HRP2 copurifies and co-sediments with heterochromatin-associated proteins, including HP1α and MPP8. Using the Chromatin in vivo Assay in multiple cell types, we demonstrate that HP1α-mediated gene repression dynamics are altered by the presence of HRP2. Furthermore, the knockout of HRP2 in MDA-MB-231 cells results in significant changes to chromatin structure and stability, which alter gene expression patterns. Here, we detail a mechanism by which HRP2 contributes to epigenetic transcriptional regulation through engagement with heterochromatin-associated proteins to stabilize the chromatin landscape and influence gene expression. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Heterochromatin and Tumorigenesis II)
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Review

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12 pages, 1152 KiB  
Review
Chromosomal Heteromorphisms and Cancer Susceptibility Revisited
by Thomas Liehr
Cells 2022, 11(20), 3239; https://doi.org/10.3390/cells11203239 - 15 Oct 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2160
Abstract
Chromosomal heteromorphisms (CHs) are a part of genetic variation in man. The past literature largely posited whether CHs could be correlated with the development of malignancies. While this possibility seemed closed by end of the 1990s, recent data have raised the question again [...] Read more.
Chromosomal heteromorphisms (CHs) are a part of genetic variation in man. The past literature largely posited whether CHs could be correlated with the development of malignancies. While this possibility seemed closed by end of the 1990s, recent data have raised the question again on the potential influences of repetitive DNA elements, the main components of CHs, in cancer susceptibility. Such new evidence for a potential role of CHs in cancer can be found in the following observations: (i) amplification and/or epigenetic alterations of CHs are routinely reported in tumors; (ii) the expression of CH-derived RNA in embryonal and other cells under stress, including cancer cells; (iii) the expression of parts of CH-DNA as long noncoding RNAs; plus (iv) theories that suggest a possible application of the “two-hit model” for euchromatic copy number variants (CNVs). Herein, these points are discussed in detail, which leads to the conclusion that CHs are by far not given sufficient consideration in routine cytogenetic analysis, e.g., leukemias and lymphomas, and need more attention in future research settings including solid tumors. This heightened focus may only be achieved by approaches other than standard sequencing or chromosomal microarrays, as these techniques are at a minimum impaired in their ability to detect, if not blind to, (highly) repetitive DNA sequences. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Heterochromatin and Tumorigenesis II)
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