Histone metabolic pathways and chromatin assembly factors as proliferation markers

The structural organization of DNA into chromatin is of key importance to regulate genome function and stability. Maintenance of such an organization is thus crucial to preserve cellular identity. At each cell cycle, during S phase, this is achieved by duplication of chromatin structure in tight coordination with DNA replication. Such a coordinate process requires histone synthesis and their deposition onto DNA by chromatin assembly factors to be efficiently coupled to DNA synthesis. In this review, we highlight the intimate relationship between these chromatin-related events and DNA replication and we show how it is possible to take advantage of this coupling in order to identify cells with high replicative potential such as tumor cells. On the basis of recent data, we discuss the potential use of chromatin-associated factors as new proliferation markers of interest for cancer diagnosis and prognosis.