Abstract:

Why is liver cell still liver cell, and lung cell still lung cell after mitosis? How does daughter cell reestablish the mother’s transcription pattern? Who could work as bookmarkers for reading the book of genetic information? Recent studies have challenged the previous conclusion that transcription factors are dissolved from mitotic chromatin, and emerging evidences have shown that specific chromatins regions are still accessible for transcription factors during mitosis, thus indicating that transcription factors could function as gene bookmarkers. In this brief review, I introduced the definition of gene bookmarking—the novel aspect of epigenetics, then gave several cases of transcription-factor-mediated gene bookmarking, as well as the systematical researches on it, hoping to provide a comprehensive interpretation of gene bookmarking for those who are working on or interested in it.

Key words: gene bookmarking, transcription factor, mitosis, epigenetic modification