Oestrogen and Transcriptional Factors

Transcriptional factors are molecules which can bind DNA and thus initiate transcription. Most of the time these are inactive in the cytoplasm because they have an inhibitor attached to them.

Hormones like oestrogen which are crucial to immunity, bone development, female reproduction, etc. can bind to transcriptional factors and release their inhibitor. Oestrogen crosses the plasma membrane freely as it is lipid-soluble.

This enables the transcriptional factor to migrate from the cytoplasm into the nucleus via the nuclear pore, bind DNA and initiate transcription of specific genes.

Epigenetics

In eukaryotes, epigenetics refers to the heritable changes in gene function that do not involve any change to the DNA sequence. Transcription can be inhibited by specific means. A common way is increased DNA methylation. The methyl (CH3) group acts as a tag on the DNA at various locations and prevents transcription that…