Unsilencing

More about Unsilencing

An illustration to article in Blood Cancer Discovery. In the lower part, the PRC1 protein complex, shown as a chain of colored ovals, keeps DNA strands close together (= silenced). In the upper part, the red protein called BCOR1 has a mutation so it cannot bind to the rest of the protein chain. The rest of the protein chain falls apart.
Without the full PRC1 protein complex the DNA cannot stay closed/silenced. This “unsilencing” is shown by the DNA strands unwinding and turning into sheet music, as a metaphor of signal reading from code.
Each cell contains genetic information about all cell types in a body, but uses only a small fraction of this information. Epigenetic silencing is a molecular lock that keeps most of the genome closed up so the information is inaccessible, like in a closed book. Cancer cells break the rules and "unsilence" genes, unlocking instructions for growth and survival.
BCOR1 mutations are common in cancer cells. The article helps understanding how cancer-promoting genes "get loud" when BCOR1 is not around.