The DEAD-box helicase Hlc regulates basal transcription and chromatin opening of stress-responsive genes.

ABSTRACT: Stress-responsive genes are lowly transcribed under normal conditions and robustly induced in response to stress. The significant difference between basal and induced transcription indicates that the general transcriptional machinery requires a mechanism to distinguish each transcription state. However, what factors specifically function in basal transcription remains poorly understood. Using a classic model stress-responsive gene (Drosophila MtnA), we found that knockdown of the DEAD-box helicase Hlc resulted in a significant transcription attenuation of MtnA under normal, but not stressed, conditions. Mechanistically, Hlc directly binds to the MtnA locus to maintain the accessibility of chromatin near the transcriptional start site, which allows the recruitment of RNA polymerase II and s

SUBMITTER: Jia R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9458421 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature