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This study investigates how keratin gene clusters in vertebrate skin are organized and regulated during development to enable tissue specialization. Researchers found that keratin gene clusters exist as pre-organized chromatin domains before cells commit to specific skin structures like feathers or scales, with regulatory elements remaining accessible but activating selectively during differentiation. Using chicken embryo models with comparative data from mouse and human skin, they demonstrate that physical contacts between separated keratin gene clusters and specific chromatin architecture enable coordinated gene expression while allowing individual keratin genes to be deployed selectively for different skin appendages and differentiation states.
Why it matters
Understanding how gene clusters maintain developmental flexibility while enabling precise tissue specialization could inform approaches to regenerative medicine and skin disease treatment. The findings provide a genomic framework for how tissues retain the ability to respond to developmental signals before committing to specialized forms, which may apply beyond skin to other organ systems.
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⚠️ Preprint – Noch nicht peer-reviewed
Dieser Artikel wurde noch nicht von unabhängigen Experten begutachtet. Die Ergebnisse sind vorläufig und sollten mit Vorsicht interpretiert werden.
Developmental competence allows tissues to respond to inductive cues before committing to specialized forms, but how this potential is encoded at clustered gene-family loci is poorly understood. We use vertebrate skin to address this problem. Epidermis responds to regional dermal signals before committing to feather, scale, or differentiated programs, and -keratin loci provide a stringent genomic test: separated type-I/type-II clusters show coordinated transcriptional pairing, yet individual keratin genes are selectively deployed across appendage, differentiation, and disease states. Using chicken developmental genomics with comparative mouse and human epidermal datasets, we show that -keratin clusters are organized before commitment as scaffolded chromatin domains. Within these domains, regulatory elements remain broadly accessible but acquire state-specific activity during commitment and differentiation. Inter-cluster contacts and chromatin-factor perturbation link this architecture to keratin output and morphology. These findings reveal a locus-level chromatin basis for developmental competence, enabling domain-level coordination with gene-level selectivity during epidermal diversification.