Lamins in Genome Organization and Diseases

This new book covers the molecular biology of lamins, which are nuclear-derived intermediate filament proteins that play diverse roles in nuclear homeostasis, such as conferring structural rigidity to the nucleus and holding chromosomes together. Numerous mutations in the lamin type A protein give rise to a plethora of diseases called laminopathies affecting muscle, cardiac, adipose, and nervous tissues, and to a combination of all of them in the form of progeroid syndromes. Furthermore, the differential expression of lamins has been implicated in a wide variety of cancers. Over the past two decades, there has been an increasing number of interesting findings related to the perturbation of signalling cascades and transcriptome analysis in the pathogenesis of laminopathies. Few reports have also shed light on the epigenetic changes associated with these diseases. The rapid advancement of chromosome conformation capture methods has provided a new impetus to delineate the finer details of chromosome association with lamins at the topological level. Bringing together most of these exciting findings in a book that appeals to a broad readership of lamins and chromatin biology.