Acta Veterinaria et Zootechnica Sinica ›› 2021, Vol. 52 ›› Issue (12): 3335-3345.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2021.012.002

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The Biological Role of Super Enhancers in Regulating Gene Expression and Their Application Prospects in Mammals

ZHAO Lei, KANG Xiaolong*   

  1. School of Agriculture, Ningxia University, Yinchuan 750021, China
  • Received:2021-04-19 Online:2021-12-25 Published:2021-12-22

Abstract: Super enhancers are a class of large clusters containing multiple enhancers, mainly enriched with a high density of transcription factors, cofactors and enhancer-associated epigenetic modification sites. Compared with enhancers, super enhancers have higher transcriptional activation capacity and play a key role in cell type-specific development, differentiation, and tumor development processes. Studying the mechanism of super-enhancer action in gene transcription is of great biological importance to reveal the molecular mechanism of mammalian phenotypic traits. This article outlines the concept, properties and identification methods of super enhancers, summarizes the main mechanisms of super enhancers function, and finally reviews the research progress of super enhancers in regulating important phenotypes of animals, and discusses their application prospects in mammals combined with the latest research progress of super enhancers, aiming to provide a reference for studying functions of super enhancer in important phenotypic traits in animals.

Key words: super enhancers, transcriptional regulation, promoter, enhancer, phase transition, non-coding RNA

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