Horst Feldmann, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Müchen
Transcription by Pol II is dependent on a number of multi-subunit complexes including TFIID, a general transcription factor complex, and SAGA. Both deliver the TATA-box binding protein (TBP) to promoters and they share a number of TBP associated factors (TAFs). While they have overlapping contributions to gene expression, TFIID function appears to dominate gene regulation at 90% of the measurable genome, mostly affecting so-called housekeeping genes, and SAGA appears to regulate 10% – largely genes involved in stress response.
Eukaryotic gene regulation as a field has matured much during decades of study, but understanding it on a genome-wide basis has started in earnest only with the assembly of genomic data. Identifying genome-wide regulatory motifs is problematic due to their typically low consensus sequences; grasping which transcription factors bind to such motifs is even more difficult, as numerous factors can bind to any one motif. Nonetheless, with ...
