Cancer stem cell marker also drives transcription in normal cells

New research links the recently discovered function of a multi-faceted transcriptional complex to control of gene expression in both normal cells and cancer stem cells. Two separate studies, published by Cell Press in the January 18th issue of Molecular Cell, provide insight into novel subunits associated with an evolutionarily conserved transcriptional regulatory complex and reveal a previously undescribed chromatin function that is required for full activity of nuclear receptors in normal cells and for the MYC oncoprotein in tumor cells.