Protein modifications in transcription elongation

A new role for histone tail modifications in transcription elongation.

RNA polymerase II (Pol II) faces a number of daunting tasks while transcribing genes. It must respond to a large array of transcription regulators, permitting distinct regulation of thousands of genes. It must coordinate its activities with RNA processing events and regulators of chromatin modifications and structure (Sims et al. 2004; Saunders et al. 2006). The C-terminal domain (CTD), a uniqu...

Transcription elongation

SnapShot: Transcription Elongation

Transcription elongation is a key regulatory step in gene expression that is controlled by many proteins, and mechanisms, ranging from RNA Polymerase II pausing to cotranscriptional histone modifications.

Single molecule transcription elongation.

Single molecule optical trapping assays have now been applied to a great number of macromolecular systems including DNA, RNA, cargo motors, restriction enzymes, DNA helicases, chromosome remodelers, DNA polymerases and both viral and bacterial RNA polymerases. The advantages of the technique are the ability to observe dynamic, unsynchronized molecular processes, to determine the distributions o...

MYC and transcription elongation.

Most transcription factors specify the subset of genes that will be actively transcribed in the cell by stimulating transcription initiation at these genes, but MYC has a fundamentally different role. MYC binds E-box sites in the promoters of active genes and stimulates recruitment of the elongation factor P-TEFb and thus transcription elongation. Consequently, rather than specifying the set of...