edited by Martin L. Privalsky. Springer-Verlag (2001) 190 pages. ISBN 3-540-67611-2 £79/$119
Not so long ago it was thought that eukaryotic transcription was regulated entirely by activation of genes that were otherwise inert. This view has since been squelched by the burgeoning field of transcriptional repression. Transcriptional corepressors, binding to transcription factors and actively preventing transcription, are clearly important for tight control of gene expression. Martin Privalsky has brought together an outstanding group of investigators to produce a succinct yet thorough survey of this field. This collection of reviews is well organized, and describes recently discovered corepressor complexes and the mechanisms they might use to exert their repressive effects. The first chapter orients the reader to the organization of chromatin structure and how it may be altered by chromatin-remodeling activities, including the covalent modification of histones. The lucid discussion of these issues is now poignant, as well as informative, given...
