Transcriptional regulation: effects of promoter proximal pausing on speed, synchrony and reliability.

ABSTRACT: Recent whole genome polymerase binding assays in the Drosophila embryo have shown that a substantial proportion of uninduced genes have pre-assembled RNA polymerase-II transcription initiation complex (PIC) bound to their promoters. These constitute a subset of promoter proximally paused genes for which mRNA elongation instead of promoter access is regulated. This difference can be described as a rearrangement of the regulatory topology to control the downstream transcriptional process of elongation rather than the upstream transcriptional initiation event. It has been shown experimentally that genes with the former mode of regulation tend to induce faster and more synchronously, and that promoter-proximal pausing is observed mainly in metazoans, in accord with a posited impact on synchron

SUBMITTER: Boettiger AN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3093350 | biostudies-literature | 2011 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature