Conclusions and future perspectives

Since their discovery in Drosophila, the PcG and TrxG families of chromatin-associated proteins have been extensively studied in organisms ranging from yeast to humans. In recent years, in vitro and in vivo structure-function studies have yielded important information about molecular mechanisms of the PcG and TrxG complexes. This, along with the extensive phenotypic characterization of model organisms and large-scale genomic data from human cancers, has greatly advanced our understanding of how these complexes exert their biochemical and biological roles, both in normal biological contexts and disease.

To summarize, despite the progress in the PcG and TrxG research field, many questions remain open, including molecular details of recruitment of PcG and TrxG complexes, their mechanistic impact on transcription, their biological roles in cancer, and their use as biomarkers and therapeutic targets in anti-cancer therapies.