About this Research Topic
Enhancers are cis-regulatory sequences that play a fundamental role in the regulation of gene expression in each cell, modulating the timing and levels of expression of specific genes through their interaction with promoters. Enhancers are generally tissue specific and most of them are active exclusively in certain tissues or in particular cell states. Enhancer activity is regulated by various histone modifications produced by specific epigenetic factors; these modifications serve as docking sites to recruit additional complexes and transcriptional factors that together set up a particular 3D chromatin conformation. Deregulation of enhancer activity, as it occurs in cell growth control-related genes, has been associated with neoplastic transformation. This may be the result of direct mutations in the enhancer sequence, which alter the function of the enhancer or impact the specificity of the target gene, as well as indirect mechanisms such as mutations in associated transcriptional factors or epigenetic regulators.
This topic will focus on the characterization of new insights on the functional mechanisms of enhancers and their importance in the regulation of genes involved in the genesis and progression of tumors, with the aim of generating new opportunities to produce potential diagnosis markers or therapeutic targets. New powerful –omic based technologies support to investigate, at an even deeper level, the molecular alterations responsible for aberrant functioning of gene expression control at enhancers.
Research papers and (mini) Reviews are welcomed but not limited to these following topics:
• Role of enhancer misregulation in cancer
• Chromatin landscape alterations
• Epigenetic regulation of enhancer activity
• Enhancer potential targets for epitherapeutics in cancer.
• Functional analysis of epigenetic factors in cancer
This topic will focus on the characterization of new insights on the functional mechanisms of enhancers and their importance in the regulation of genes involved in the genesis and progression of tumors, with the aim of generating new opportunities to produce potential diagnosis markers or therapeutic targets. New powerful –omic based technologies support to investigate, at an even deeper level, the molecular alterations responsible for aberrant functioning of gene expression control at enhancers.
Research papers and (mini) Reviews are welcomed but not limited to these following topics:
• Role of enhancer misregulation in cancer
• Chromatin landscape alterations
• Epigenetic regulation of enhancer activity
• Enhancer potential targets for epitherapeutics in cancer.
• Functional analysis of epigenetic factors in cancer
Keywords: Enhancer, Transcription regulation, Cancer, Epigenetics
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
