Decoding transcriptional repressor complexes in the adult central nervous system

• Transcriptional repressors serve as a foundation on DNA for forming repressor complexes.
• Repressor complexes carry enzymatic activity to alter chromatin environment.
• Components of repressor complexes displays diverse functions in the CNS.
• Disruption of transcriptional repression mechanism may contribute to disease.
• Histone deacetylases play a critical role in cognition but not all are beneficial.

Cells maintain precise gene expression by balancing transcriptional activation and repression. While much work has focused on elucidating transcriptional activation in the central nervous system (CNS), little is known about transcriptional repression. One means to repress gene expression is to initiate binding of transcription factors to DNA, which then recruit co-repressors as well as other accessory proteins, forming a multi-protein repressor complex. These multi-protein repressor complexes include histone modifying enzymes that trigger processes such as histone acetylation, methylation, and ubiquitylation, altering chromatin structures to impact gene expression. Within these complexes transcriptional repressor proteins per se do not exhibit enzymatic reactions to remodel chromatin structure, whereas histone modifying enzymes lack intrinsic DNA binding activity but have an ability to process post-translational modifications on histones. Thus, the mutual association between transcriptional repressors and histone modifying enzymes is essential to sculpt chromatin to favor transcriptional repression and down regulate gene expression. Additionally, co-repressors are integral components in the context of gene repression as they bridge the association of transcriptional repressors and histone modifying enzymes. In this review, we will discuss the roles of some of the major components of these repressor complex in the CNS as well as their cellular functions that may underlie fundamental behavior in animals.This article is part of the Special Issue entitled ‘Neuroepigenetic Disorders’.