Abstract
Histone variants constitute a fundamental feature of the epigenome. However, their dynamics during normal and challenged DNA replication and their distribution in the three-dimensional space of the nucleus remain poorly characterized. A recent study employed stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (STORM) to obtain a high-resolution view of the spatial distribution of H3 histone variants in the nucleus and related this to the timing of DNA replication.
Highlights
The spatial organization of the genome plays a crucial role in cell function
Changes in the distribution of parental histones were evident at replication sites and in the surrounding region. This suggests that replication stress might affect the epigenetic landscape by inducing changes in the epigenome that could potentially lead to altered gene expression, providing a new potential mechanism for how replication stress might enhance tumorigenesis
Concluding remarks The study from Clément and colleagues has established the distribution of histone H3 variants and their recycling during replication in the three-dimensional space of the nucleus and has linked them with DNA replication timing and gene expression
Summary
Histone modifications and histone variants help shape chromatin domains, and this epigenetic landscape governs gene expression and instructs cell function, cellular identity, and fate decisions. Parental histones, bearing their post-translational modifications, are recycled to replicated DNA. A recent study by the Almouzni laboratory [3] combines genomics with super-resolution imaging of parental histone variants and replication factories to describe the dynamics of histone variants in S-phase at the single-cell level with unparalleled spatio-temporal resolution.
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