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cohesin complex
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cohesin complex

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Also known as SMC/kleisin ring complex, cohesin, GO:0008278

thumb|Diagram of cohesin showing its four constituent protein subunits

~20 min read

Encyclopedic overview

22 sections
Contents
  • Structure and subunits
  • Function
  • Role in chromatin compaction and global organization
  • Role in cell division
  • Role in regulation of gene expression
  • Other functions
  • Localization on DNA
  • Cohesin in sister chromatid cohesion
  • Mechanism of sister chromatid cohesion
  • Dissociation of sister chromatid cohesion
  • Cohesin in meiosis
  • Cohesin in loop extrusion
  • Evolution
  • Research techniques to study cohesin
  • Clinical significance
  • Cohesinopathies
  • Cohesin in cancer
  • Other
  • See also
  • References
  • Further reading
  • External links

thumb|Diagram of cohesin showing its four constituent protein subunits

Cohesin is a protein complex that mediates sister chromatid cohesion, homologous recombination, and DNA looping. Cohesin is formed of SMC3, SMC1, SCC1 and SCC3 (SA1 or SA2 in humans). Cohesin holds sister chromatids together after DNA replication until anaphase when removal of cohesin leads to separation of sister chromatids. The complex forms a ring-like structure and it is believed that sister chromatids are held together by entrapment inside the cohesin ring. Cohesin is a member of the SMC family of protein complexes which includes Condensin, MukBEF and SMC-ScpAB.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “cohesin complex” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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