Genes Dev News Today

Many cancers originate from stem or progenitor cells hijacked by somatic mutations that drive replication, exemplified by adenomatous transformation of pulmonary alveolar epithelial type II (AT2) cells1. Here we demonstrate a different scenario: expression of KRAS(G12D) in differentiated AT1 cells reprograms them slowly and asynchronously back into AT2 stem cells that go on to generate indolent tumours. Like human lepidic adenocarcinoma, the tumour cells slowly spread along alveolar wal...

The basic helix–loop–helix (bHLH) family of transcription factors recognizes DNA motifs known as E-boxes (CANNTG) and includes 108 members1. Here we investigate how chromatinized E-boxes are engaged by two structurally diverse bHLH proteins: the proto-oncogene MYC-MAX and the circadian transcription factor CLOCK-BMAL1 (refs. 2,3). Both transcription factors bind to E-boxes preferentially near the nucleosomal entry–exit sites. Structural studies with engineered or native nucleos...

1* 1Department of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, United States 2Department of Dermatology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, United States 3Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, United States 4Department of Pathology, Division of Molecular and Cellular Pathology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, United States Tumo...