You are currently viewing the abstract.
View Full TextLog in to view the full text
AAAS login provides access to Science for AAAS members, and access to other journals in the Science family to users who have purchased individual subscriptions.
Register for free to read this article
As a service to the community, this article is available for free. Existing users log in.
More options
Download and print this article for your personal scholarly, research, and educational use.
Buy a single issue of Science for just $15 USD.
Abstract
The Drosophila Polycomb and trithorax group proteins act through chromosomal elements such as Fab-7 to maintain repressed or active gene expression, respectively. AFab-7 element is switched from a silenced to a mitotically heritable active state by an embryonic pulse of transcription. Here, histone H4 hyperacetylation was found to be associated withFab-7 after activation, suggesting that H4 hyperacetylation may be a heritable epigenetic tag of the activated element. ActivatedFab-7 enables transcription of a gene even after withdrawal of the primary transcription factor. This feature may allow epigenetic maintenance of active states of developmental genes after decay of their early embryonic regulators.
↵* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: paro{at}sun0.urz.uni-heidelberg.de
