Histone chaperones in chromatin dynamics: implications in disease manifestation.

ABSTRACT

Histone chaperones are the histone interacting factors that stimulate histone transfer reaction without being a part of the final product. They are involved in the histone storage, histone translocation to the nucleus, and histone exchange and histone deposition onto the DNA for replication dependent chromatin assembly. Interestingly, they have also been demonstrated to possess the histone removal activity. While the involvement of the histone chaperones in chromatin transcription is undisputed, the question of their local versus global involvement is under scrutiny. This review enumerates the role played by various histone chaperones in the establishment of chromatin structure and regulation of chromatin transcription. The role of histone chaperones in disease manifestation is not very clear, preliminary results with few histone chaperones suggest that expression and function of these factors dramatically alters in carcinogenesis. This review will also focus on the possible role of histone chaperones in cancer diagnosis and progression