Transcriptional response to stress is pre-wired by promoter and enhancer architecture.

ABSTRACT: Programs of gene expression are executed by a battery of transcription factors that coordinate divergent transcription from a pair of tightly linked core initiation regions of promoters and enhancers. Here, to investigate how divergent transcription is reprogrammed upon stress, we measured nascent RNA synthesis at nucleotide-resolution, and profiled histone H4 acetylation in human cells. Our results globally show that the release of promoter-proximal paused RNA polymerase into elongation functions as a critical switch at which a gene's response to stress is determined. Highly transcribed and highly inducible genes display strong transcriptional directionality and selective assembly of general transcription factors on the core sense promoter. Heat-induced transcription at enhancers, instead

SUBMITTER: Vihervaara A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5557961 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature