Stress-induced transcriptional memory accelerates promoter-proximal pause release and decelerates termination over mitotic divisions.

ABSTRACT: Heat shock instantly reprograms transcription. Whether gene and enhancer transcription fully recover from stress and whether stress establishes a memory by provoking transcription regulation that persists through mitosis remained unknown. Here, we measured nascent transcription and chromatin accessibility in unconditioned cells and in the daughters of stress-exposed cells. Tracking transcription genome-wide at nucleotide-resolution revealed that cells precisely restored RNA polymerase II (Pol II) distribution at gene bodies and enhancers upon recovery from stress. However, a single heat exposure in embryonic fibroblasts primed a faster gene induction in their daughter cells by increasing promoter-proximal Pol II pausing and by accelerating the pause release. In K562 erythroleukemia cells,

SUBMITTER: Vihervaara A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8054823 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature