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Review
. 2022 Mar 7:13:805265.
doi: 10.3389/fgene.2022.805265. eCollection 2022.

Epigenetic and Transcriptional Control of Erythropoiesis

Maeve Wells  1 , Laurie Steiner  1
Affiliations
Review

Epigenetic and Transcriptional Control of Erythropoiesis

Maeve Wells et al. Front Genet. .

Abstract

Erythropoiesis is a process of enormous magnitude, with the average person generating two to three million red cells every second. Erythroid progenitors start as large cells with large nuclei, and over the course of three to four cell divisions they undergo a dramatic decrease in cell size accompanied by profound nuclear condensation, which culminates in enucleation. As maturing erythroblasts are undergoing these dramatic phenotypic changes, they accumulate hemoglobin and express high levels of other erythroid-specific genes, while silencing much of the non-erythroid transcriptome. These phenotypic and gene expression changes are associated with distinct changes in the chromatin landscape, and require close coordination between transcription factors and epigenetic regulators, as well as precise regulation of RNA polymerase II activity. Disruption of these processes are associated with inherited anemias and myelodysplastic syndromes. Here, we review the epigenetic mechanisms that govern terminal erythroid maturation, and their role in human disease.

Keywords: anemia; disease; epigenetic; erythroid; transcription.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Overview of Erythropoiesis.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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