At zygotic genome activation (ZGA), changes in chromatin structure are associated with new transcription immediately following the maternal-to-zygotic transition (MZT). The nuclear architectural proteins, cohesin and CCCTC-binding factor (CTCF), contribute to chromatin structure and gene regulation. We show here that normal cohesin function is important for ZGA in zebrafish. Depletion of cohesin subunit Rad21 delays ZGA without affecting cell cycle progression. In contrast, CTCF depletion has little effect on ZGA whereas complete abrogation is lethal. Genome wide analysis of Rad21 binding reveals a change in distribution from pericentromeric satellite DNA, and few locations including the miR-430 locus (whose products are responsible for maternal transcript degradation), to genes, as embryos progress through the MZT. After MZT, a subset of Rad21 binding overlaps pioneer factor Pou5f3, which activates early expressed genes. Rad21 depletion disrupts the formation of nucleoli and RNA polymerase II foci, suggestive of global defects in chromosome architecture. We propose that Rad21/cohesin redistribution to active areas of the genome is key to the establishment of chromosome organization and the embryonic developmental program.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 15. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 24 May 2021.
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Outputs of similar age from Development (09501991)
#47
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Altmetric has tracked 34,372,222 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 90th percentile: it's in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 11,538 research outputs from this source. They typically receive more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 8.7. This one has done well, scoring higher than 87% of its peers.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 196 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 75% of its contemporaries.
