Progresses on the structure and function of cohesin.

Cohesin is an evolutionarily conserved protein complex in eukaryotes. The four subunits of cohesin form a ring structure that plays an important role in maintaining the orderly arrangement of chromatin during cell division. In addition, metazoan cohesin was found to act as an intermolecular linker, which regulates insulator/enhancer-promoter interactions, leading to either enhancement or inhibition of gene expressions. However, little is known about the role of cohesin in the transcriptional regulation in plants. In the review, we introduce the structure and core subunits of cohesin, and summarize the factors that regulate its dynamic changes on chromatin. Based on the functional study of plant cohesin in recent years and researches in animals about the roles of cohesin in the three-dimensional genome organization and transcriptional regulation, we prospect the potential functions of plant cohesin in regulating transcription.