The recruitment of chromatin modifiers by long noncoding RNAs: lessons from PRC2

  1. Thomas R. Cech
  1. BioFrontiers Institute and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA
  1. Corresponding authors: chen.davidovich{at}monash.edu, thomas.cech{at}colorado.edu
  • 1 Present address: EMBL Australia and the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, School of Biomedical Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia

Abstract

Polycomb repressive complex-2 (PRC2) is a histone methyltransferase required for epigenetic silencing during development and cancer. Among chromatin modifying factors shown to be recruited and regulated by long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), PRC2 is one of the most studied. Mammalian PRC2 binds thousands of RNAs in vivo, and it is becoming a model system for the recruitment of chromatin modifying factors by RNA. Yet, well-defined PRC2-binding motifs within target RNAs have been elusive. From the protein side, PRC2 RNA-binding subunits contain no known RNA-binding domains, complicating functional studies. Here we provide a critical review of existing models for the recruitment of PRC2 to chromatin by RNAs. This discussion may also serve researchers who are studying the recruitment of other chromatin modifiers by lncRNAs.

Keywords

Footnotes

This article is distributed exclusively by the RNA Society for the first 12 months after the full-issue publication date (see http://rnajournal.cshlp.org/site/misc/terms.xhtml). After 12 months, it is available under a Creative Commons License (Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International), as described at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

| Table of Contents