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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2012 Mar 4.
Published in final edited form as: Mol Cell. 2011 Mar 4;41(5):497–499. doi: 10.1016/j.molcel.2011.02.019

Figure 1. Chromatin-localized biosynthesis of metabolites can provide chromatin- and transcription-modifying enzymes with the cofactors they need to catalyze their essential chemical reactions.

Figure 1

While bound to chromatin, metabolite producers (“synthases”; e.g., MATIIα) can synthesize small molecule cofactors (e.g., SAM) that are used by chromatin- and transcription-modifying enzymes (“effectors”; e.g., methyltransferases) to chemically modify histones and non-histone proteins to alter gene expression. The synthase may be recruited by a DNA-bound transcription factor (“TF”; e.g., MafK) or the effector. The specific examples noted here are from Katoh et al. (2011).