Abstract
This chapter discusses the process of cell differentiation in higher organisms that involves the activation or repression of different sets of genes in different tissues. In a particular cell type, only a small portion of the total set of genes is active at any particular stage of development. Proteins associated with DNA in the chromatin complex play an important role in the regulation of patterns of gene activity. Brain is a tissue that is heterogeneous in cell types. The various cell types may exhibit divergent synthetic activities when a particular stage of neural development is examined. Studies on chromosomal components in brain cells highlight the desirability of carrying out molecular studies on specific cell types isolated from specific brain regions. While the analysis of total brain nuclei suggested that the organization of nucleosomes in brain chromatin was similar to that found in other higher eukaryotic cells, the isolation of neurons from the cerebral cortex indicated that this cell type converts to a unique chromatin conformation during the first few days after birth in mouse, rat, and rabbit. The chapter also focuses on the mechanism of conversion to the short DNA repeat length and whether chromosomal proteins are altered.
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