Programmatically highlight a subshape

Hello forum, I've two questions:

1) is it possible to exploit the highlight mechanism in order to highlight not an entire shape, but a subshape of a main shape (for example, a face of a cube), I mean programmatically

 2) if yes, would it be possible to customize the highlight such that also in wireframe mode the subshape is highligted in solid color

Thanks in advance

Giovanni