Structural–Functional Organization of the Eukaryotic Cell Nucleus and Transcription Regulation: Introduction to This Special Issue of Biochemistry (Moscow)

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S. V. Razin^1,2

¹Institute of Gene Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences, 119334 Moscow, Russia

²Lomonosov Moscow State University, Biological Faculty, 119991 Moscow, Russia; E-mail: sergey.v.razin@usa.net

Received January 9, 2018

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This issue of Biochemistry (Moscow) is devoted to the cell nucleus and mechanisms of transcription regulation. Over the years, biochemical processes in the cell nucleus have been studied in isolation, outside the context of their spatial organization. Now it is clear that segregation of functional processes within a compartmentalized cell nucleus is very important for the implementation of basic genetic processes. The functional compartmentalization of the cell nucleus is closely related to the spatial organization of the genome, which in turn plays a key role in the operation of epigenetic mechanisms. In this issue of Biochemistry (Moscow), we present a selection of review articles covering the functional architecture of the eukaryotic cell nucleus, the mechanisms of genome folding, the role of stochastic processes in establishing 3D architecture of the genome, and the impact of genome spatial organization on transcription regulation.

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KEY WORDS: chromatin, cell nucleus, spatial organization of the genome, macromolecular crowding, functional compartmentalization of the cell nucleus, 3D genomics, regulation of transcription

DOI: 10.1134/S0006297918040016

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