  We survey the role of right-angled Artin groups in the theory of
diffeomorphism groups of low dimensional manifolds. We first describe some of
the subgroup structure of right-angled Artin groups. We then discuss the
interplay between algebraic structure, compactness, and regularity for group
actions on one--dimensional manifolds. For compact one--manifolds, every
right-angled Artin group acts faithfully by $C^1$ diffeomorphisms, but the
right-angled Artin groups which act faithfully by $C^2$ diffeomorphisms are
very restricted. For the real line, every right-angled Artin group acts
faithfully by $C^{\infty}$ diffeomorphisms, though analytic actions are again
more limited. In dimensions two and higher, every right-angled Artin group acts
faithfully on every manifold by $C^{\infty}$ diffeomorphisms. We give
applications of this discussion to mapping class groups of surfaces and related
groups.
