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Tissue-Specific TAFs Counteract Polycomb to Turn on Terminal Differentiation
Xin Chen,Mark Hiller,*Yasemin Sancak,Margaret T. Fuller
Polycomb transcriptional silencing machinery is implicated inthe maintenance of precursor fates, but how this repressionis reversed to allow cell differentiation is unknown. Here weshow that testis-specific TAF (TBP-associated factor) homologsrequired for terminal differentiation of male germ cells mayactivate target gene expression in part by counteracting repressionby Polycomb. Chromatin immunoprecipitation revealed that testisTAFs bind to target promoters, reduce Polycomb binding, andpromote local accumulation of H3K4me3, a mark of Trithorax action.Testis TAFs also promoted relocalization of Polycomb RepressionComplex 1 components to the nucleolus in spermatocytes, implicatingsubnuclear architecture in the regulation of terminal differentiation.
Departments of Developmental Biology and Genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305–5329, USA.
* Present address: Department of Biological Science, Goucher College,Baltimore, MD 21204, USA.
To whom correspondence should be addressed. Department of Developmental Biology, Beckman Center B300, 279 Campus Drive, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305–5329, USA. E-mail: fuller{at}cmgm.stanford.edu
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PNAS
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Present address: Biology Department, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 04159, USA. 
To whom correspondence should be addressed. Department of Developmental Biology, Beckman Center B300, 279 Campus Drive, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305–5329, USA. E-mail: 
