Chromatin remodeling and cancer, part II: ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling

Connections between perturbations that lie outside of our genome, that is, epigenetic alternations, and tumorigenesis have become increasingly apparent. Dynamic chromatin remodeling of the fundamental nucleosomal structure (covered in this review) or the covalent marks residing in the histone proteins that make up this structure (covered previously in part I) underlie many fundamental cellular processes, including transcriptional regulation and DNA-damage repair. Dysregulation of these processes has been linked to cancer development. Mechanisms of chromatin remodeling include dynamic interplay between ATP-dependent complexes, covalent histone modifications, utilization of histone variants and DNA methylation. In part II of this series, we focus on connections between ATP-dependent chromatin-remodeling complexes and oncogenesis and discuss the potential clinical implications of chromatin remodeling and cancer.