Progress on chromatin remodeling factor CHD

Chromatin remodeling plays an important role in DNA repair, gene transcriptional regulation. Remodeling resultes in a series of important changes in chromatin structure, e.g. loosing the condensed chromatin and opening the structure of nucleoscome, which leads to increased accessibility of the transcription factors to nucleosomal DNA. CHD (chromodomain, helicase, DNA-binding) genes compose a subfamily of the known chromatin remodeling complexes. Up to now, six human CHD members have been cloned. They contain three main domains: Chromodomain which locates in the N terminus of the proteins, SW12/SNF2-related ATPase/helicase domain in the middle region, DNA-binding domain in the C terminus. The mutation or abnor-mal expression of CHD gene is thought to be related to some human diseases. (authors)