Somatically heritable change in regional chromatin structure leading to transcriptional inactivation is observed in a variety of organisms. Euchromatic and heterochromatic domains have been proposed to be formed and maintained by the action of nonhistone chromosomal proteins that either bind directly to DNA or are members of chromatin binding protein complexes. The nonhistone chromosomal proteins M31 and M32 are candidate inducer or maintenance genes of repressed chromatin states in the mouse. I have investigated M31 gene organization and M31 and M32 gene expression to further examine the possible role of these genes in the formation or maintenance of heterochromatic domains. Investigation of the organization of the M31 gene reveals that at least five M31 transcripts are produced by alternative splicing of 9 exons and/or premature termination with polyadenylation. Several transcripts are present before cytologically visible heterochromatin is detected, suggesting that the products of these transcripts have a role in the formation of heterochromatic domains. M32 produces only one transcript whose tissue pattern of expression is similar to that of M31.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.29110 |
| Date | January 1995 |
| Creators | Peterson, Karen R. |
| Contributors | Sapienza, Carmen (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Division of Experimental Medicine.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001468324, proquestno: NN08146, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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