Sensing and Remembering Cellular States Through Chromatin

Chromatin is the means by which the same genome encodes multiple cells: it enables orderly development, normal physiology and, when it goes haywire, malfunctioning chromatin is a hallmark of disease. In the cardiovascular system, the epigenomic features controlling gene expression have recently become the focus of intense research. This chapter examines the principles of chromatin structure, details their regulation and identifies areas of rapid development in our understanding of how the genome is packaged. Also explored are the recent observations indicating that deranged epigenomic features on a genome-wide scale may underpin various cardiovascular diseases.