Preface

Excerpt

The development, progression, and metastasis of cancer is a multifactorial and polygenic cellular process involving coordinated interplays of regulatory gene products with roles in the nucleus, the cytoplasm, and in distinct cellular sub-compartments. The cancerous phenotypic outcome of such regulatory processes is primarily driven by epigenetic control and functional manifestation of regulatory genes, in addition to other mechanisms. Central to this process is the ability of cancer cells to sense extracellular milieu and integrate resulting signaling onto chromatin remodeling complexes which, in turn, play a fundamental role in governing gene expression. The chromatin remodeling complexes could either stimulate or repress gene transcription depending upon the functional specialization of their interacting enzymes and coregulatory factors—namely, coactivators or corepressors. Further, the process of epigenetic regulation of gene expression is regulated by signaling-dependent dynamic changes in the posttranslational modifications of these coregulators. This thematic issue of Cancer and Metastasis Reviews brings together the most exciting molecular facets and significance of one such family of chromatin remodelers—the metastatic tumor antigens or metastasis-tumor antigen or metastasis-associated protein (MTA) in cancer. …