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Breathing chromatin in pluripotent stem cells.

Zwaka TP

Center for Cell and Gene Therapy and Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, Texas 77030, USA.

Only a few factors controlling stem cell pluripotency have been identified to date, and we do not yet fully understand how they act to maintain pluripotency and control differentiation. A report in this issue of Developmental Cell (Meshorer et al., 2006) describes a new trait of pluripotent cells: hyperdynamic or "breathing" chromatin. According to this report, hyperdynamic chromatin is both specific and functionally relevant for pluripotent cells.

Published 9 January 2006 in Dev Cell, 10(1): 1-2.
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