Selective repression of Notch pathway target gene transcription

The Notch signaling pathway regulates metazoan development, in part, by directly controlling the transcription of target genes. For a given cellular context, however, only subsets of the known target genes are transcribed when the pathway is activated. Thus, there are context-dependent mechanisms that selectively maintain repression of target gene transcription when the Notch pathway is activated. This review focuses on molecular mechanisms that have been recently reported to mediate selective repression of Notch pathway target gene transcription. These mechanisms are essential for generating the complex spatial and temporal expression patterns of Notch target genes during development.

► Subsets of target genes remain repressed when the Notch pathway is activated.
► Chromatin environment modulates target gene responses to Notch pathway activation.
► Target-gene specific corepressor complexes differentially mediate repression.
► Local repressors can combinatorially interact with CSL/corepressor complexes.
► DNA binding site architecture contributes to context-dependent target gene repression.