After recruiting the appropriate cellular machinery, transcription factors can further regulate gene expression by encouraging that machinery to do its job -- copy the DNA into an RNA transcript.
A new study published online today (April 29) in Cell helps drive home just how widespread this second level of gene control is, and implicates a cancer-causing transcription factor as a major player in the process. "This is another piece in the puzzle that demonstrates controlling the elongation phase of transcription" -- the production of messenger RNA as the transcriptional apparatus propagates down the gene -- "is one of the more important control mechanisms," said biochemist linkurl:David Price;http://www.biochem.uiowa.edu/price/index.html of the University of Iowa, who was not involved in the study. "[This] paper is going to help convince the field that this is just the way it is." Scientists once believed that...
 |
Image: Wikimedia commons, The Protein Data Bank PDB |
P.B. Rahl, et al., "c-Myc regulates transcriptional pause release," Cell:141,1-14,2010.
Interested in reading more?
Become a Member of
Receive full access to more than 35 years of archives, as well as TS Digest, digital editions of The Scientist, feature stories, and much more!
Already a member?
