Sniffing Out a Job for BRCA1
Science · 2000
The discovery that mutations in the BRCA1 gene predispose individuals to an increased risk of developing breast or ovarian cancer has prompted the search for what the normal BRCA1 protein does in the cell. BRCA1 has structural motifs characteristic of transcription factors, and it increases the expression of certain genes including the master tumor suppressor gene, p53. The finding by Bochar et al. that BRCA1 is a crucial component of SWI/SNF, an 18-protein complex that remodels chromatin, now suggests how BRCA1 might regulate gene transcription.