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tommytoughnut tommytoughnut
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Posts: 89
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11 years ago
If all human somatic cells contain 23 pairs of chromosomes, then what regulates expression of specific genes and not others in different cell types. For example, a pancreatic beta cell can secrete insulin yet an alpha cell secretes glucagon, and not insulin, yet they both cells have exactly the same DNA, and so do all somatic cells. Is there some specific events such as histone acetylation, phosphorylation, DNA methylation/demethylation etc. that follow cell differentiation? If this is the case, is it not possible then to experimentally manipulate even a terminally differentiated cell to express certain features for example with Dam methylases and other enzymes? Basically, what is the difference between chromatin in a stem cell and a unipotent  or even a terminally differentiated cell?
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wrote...
11 years ago
Ok, your first question was what regulates expression of genes in some cells and not others:  The key is promoter regions.  Each gene (insulin, glucagon, etc.) has a promoter region that only allows it to be expressed in the "right" cells.  So even though the DNA is present in every cell, expression is only turned on in appropriate cells where the right transcription factor "turns on" the gene and allows the DNA to be made into mRNA (and eventually into protein).
The rest of your question confuses me a bit...hopefully someone else can answer you.  My understanding is not that the DNA/chromatin intself changes in a stem cells vs. a differentiated cell, but that the cell begins to have expression markers of different lineages turned on.  People are working very hard to try and make differentiated cells behave like stem cells...just in the last couple weeks, some groups have said they were able to turn skin cells into cells that are "identical" to stem cells...you can see a "newsweek" story that mentions these papers here http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19094606/site/newsweek/?from=rss
and you should be able to find them on PubMed if you are interested in the details.
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