Structural Insights into the Evolutionarily Conserved BAF Chromatin Remodeling Complex
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Updated: Dec 15, 2025

Generation and Purification of Human INO80 Chromatin Remodeling Complexes and Subcomplexes
Published on: October 23, 2014
Ryan D Marcum1, Alexis A Reyes1,2, Yuan He1,2,3
1Department of Molecular Biosciences, Northwestern University, 2205 Tech Drive, Evanston, IL 60208-3500, USA.
Abstract:
The switch/sucrose nonfermentable (SWI/SNF) family of proteins acts to regulate chromatin accessibility and plays an essential role in multiple cellular processes. A high frequency of mutations has been found in SWI/SNF family subunits by exome sequencing in human cancer, and multiple studies support its role in tumor suppression. Recent structural studies of yeast SWI/SNF and its human homolog, BAF (BRG1/BRM associated factor), have provided a model for their complex assembly and their interaction with nucleosomal substrates, revealing the molecular function of individual subunits as well as the potential impact of cancer-associated mutations on the remodeling function. Here we review the structural conservation between yeast SWI/SNF and BAF and examine the role of highly mutated subunits within the BAF complex.
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