Epigenetic control: slow and global, nimble and local

doi:10.1101/gad.1677008

Epigenetic control: slow and global, nimble and local

Christine S. Cheng1,
Tracy L. Johnson2, and
Alexander Hoffmann1,3

¹ Signaling Systems Laboratory, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, USA;
² Division of Biology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, USA

Abstract

The regulation of gene expression involves multiple levels of control, from those that are inheritable to those that are highly responsive to environmental changes. In this issue of Genes & Development, Dong and colleagues (pp. 1159–1173) demonstrate that the dynamically controlled immune response transcription factor NF-κB may, in fact, have a role in regulating heterochromatin and gene expression at large distances from its actual target sequences and genes.