In a new study in the journal Nature Communications, biologists from the University of Pennsylvania identify a protein that enables plant cells to reach these otherwise inaccessible genes in order to switch between different identities. Called a “pioneer transcription factor,” the LEAFY protein gets a foothold in particular portions of the chromatin bundle, loosening the structure and recruiting other proteins that eventually allow genes to first be transcribed into RNA and then translated into proteins.
“The programs that are not needed in a given cell or tissue or condition are effectively shut off by various chromatin modifications that make them very inaccessible,” says biologist Doris Wagner of the School of Arts & Sciences, senior author on the work. “The question has always been, How do you go from shut to open? We found that LEAFY, this protein that we already knew was important in reprogramming plant cells, is one of these pioneer transcription factors that get a foot in the door, as it were, to alter the program of cells.”