CHROMATIN-REMODELING FACTORS - MACHINES THAT REGULATE

Chromatin has shifted into the focus of attention as a key to understa nding the regulation of nuclear processes such as transcription. Prote in machines have been described that use the energy of ATP to render c hromatin dynamic and hence active, but which may also be involved in c hromatin assembly. The discovery of three different Drosophila nucleos ome remodeling complexes that contain imitation switch (ISWI), an ATPa se with a high degree of sequence conservation from yeast to human, po ints to a central function of this ATPase in chromatin dynamics.