Gene Regulatory Complexes: their role and regulation across normal and malignant haematopoiesis.

Transcription is regulated in a multitude of ways to ensure lineage- and context-specific gene expression in a co-ordinated fashion. Haematopoiesis is an exemplar process for studying the mechanisms of tightly regulated activation and repression of gene expression programmes by transcription and gene regulatory complexes. These complexes act by post-translational modification of histones and non-histone proteins, epigenetic modifications of DNA, ATP-dependent chromatin remodelling, scaffolding and recruitment of combinatorial protein complexes and alteration of three-dimensional genome conformation to bring about lineage-specific gene expression. This review focusses on the function of these gene regulatory complexes in haematopoiesis and how they are hijacked in Acute Myeloid Leukaemia, highlighting therapeutic progress and opportunities.