Gene

Transcription factories

Mechanotransduction

Cell biology

Linguistics

Philosophy

Biology

Enhancer

Cell nucleus

Genomic organization

Chromosome conformation capture

Chromatin remodeling

Transcription (linguistics)

Regulation of gene expression

Computational biology

Genetics

Chromatin

Genome

Scaffold/matrix attachment region

Transcriptional regulation

Gene expression

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology

Mechanical cues from the microenvironment can be efficiently transmitted to the nucleus to engage in the regulation of genome organization and gene expression. Recent technological and theoretical progress sheds new light on the relationships between cell mechanics, nuclear and chromosomal architecture and gene transcription. It is well established that cells sense chemical signals from their local microenvironment and transduce them to the nucleus to regulate gene expression programmes. Although a number of experiments have shown that mechanical cues can also modulate gene expression, the underlying mechanisms are far from clear. Nevertheless, we are now beginning to understand how mechanical cues are transduced to the nucleus and how they influence nuclear mechanics, genome organization and transcription. In particular, recent progress in super-resolution imaging, in genome-wide application of RNA sequencing, chromatin immunoprecipitation and chromosome conformation capture and in theoretical modelling of 3D genome organization enables the exploration of the relationship between cell mechanics, 3D chromatin configurations and transcription, thereby shedding new light on how mechanical forces regulate gene expression.

Regulation of genome organization and gene expression by nuclear mechanotransduction