Pol II piece makes and breaks mRNA

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Control of alternative pre-mRNA splicing by RNA Pol II elongation: faster is not always better.

The realization that the mammalian proteomic complexity is achieved with a limited number of genes demands a better understanding of alternative splicing regulation. Promoter control of alternative splicing was originally described by our group in studies performed on the fibronectin gene. Recently, other labs extended our findings to the cystic fibrosis, CD44 and CGRP genes strongly supporting...

Transcriptional regulation by Pol II(G) involving mediator and competitive interactions of Gdown1 and TFIIF with Pol II.

Pol II(G) is a distinct form of RNA polymerase II that contains the tightly associated Gdown1 polypeptide (encoded by POLR2M). Unlike Pol II, Pol II(G) is highly dependent upon Mediator for robust activator-dependent transcription in a biochemically defined in vitro system. Here, in vitro studies show that Gdown1 competes with TFIIF for binding to the RPB1 and RPB5 subunits of Pol II, thereby i...

A myosin for RNA Pol II

A myosin for RNA Pol II T ranscription gets a boost from myosin VI, according to fi ndings from Sarah Vreugde (DIBIT Scientifi c Institute, Milano, Italy) and colleagues. The motor might drag genes into transcription neighborhoods. While trying to understand the function of myosin VI, Vreugde noticed that its localization pattern looked much like that of RNA polymerase II. The authors then show...

A new player in Pol II pausing.

Transcriptional control plays a primary role in gene expression and can be exerted at multiple levels of the transcription process, such as RNA polymerase recruitment and promoter-proximal pausing. A recent report published in The EMBO Journal (Li and Gilmour, 2013) provides new insights into the regulation of a large class of paused genes through the identification of a novel transcription fac...