More support for transcription trick

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. DNA PolymeraseImage: Wikimedia commons, The Protein Data Bank PDBA 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 piec

Written byJef Akst

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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.

DNA Polymerase
Image: Wikimedia commons,
The Protein Data Bank PDB

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 transcription factors promoted gene expression simply by recruiting RNA polymerase II (Pol II) machinery to the promoter region of their target genes, and letting the Pol II take over from there. But over the last 20 years, several lines of evidence indicated that once bound to the promoter, Pol II pauses, or stalls, just a little ways down the transcript, and needs another signal (such as a transcription factor) to continue transcribing the gene. Recent evidence suggests that this pause is a widespread phenomenon in the genome, but "there's been some reluctance in the transcription community to accept that there are these polymerases poised [just past the start site] all throughout the human genome," Price said. Exploring the role of this mechanism of gene control in mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs), molecular biologist linkurl:Richard Young;http://web.wi.mit.edu/young/ of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his colleagues have all but eliminated that doubt. They found evidence of paused polymerases on the vast majority of genes -- both those actively being transcribed and those that remained silent. "We're thinking now that at all genes where RNA polymerase II initiates transcription, there is a pause step," Young said. "So even genes that are being currently and actively transcribed, polymerase initiates [transcription], but must go through this pause checkpoint before it's allowed to proceed to elongation." The team further showed that the well-studied transcription factor c-Myc, which is involved in cell self-renewal and proliferation and has been implicated in 15-30 percent of human cancers, is an example of the additional factor needed to push Pol II past the pause. Instead of promoting gene expression by recruiting Pol II to the genes, c-Myc appears to release already-initiated polymerases from this paused stage. It does so by recruiting a protein known as positive transcription elongation factor b (P-TEPb) to release the Pol II to finish what it started. Understanding the details of this mechanism of gene control could thus have important implications for the treatment of a variety of ailments, said molecular biologist and clinician linkurl:B. Matija Peterlin;http://labs.medicine.ucsf.edu/bmplab/ of the University of California, San Francisco, who also did not participate in the research. "I think it brings a whole new aspect to not just cancer [research] but" other diseases as well, Peterlin said. "If you attenuate the activity of P-TEFb, you might be able to [develop] a non-gene-modifying way treat a lot of human diseases." P.B. Rahl, et al., "c-Myc regulates transcriptional pause release," Cell:141,1-14,2010.
**__Related stories:__***linkurl:Transcription Surprise;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/55944/
[September 2009]*linkurl:A taskmaster transcription factor;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/55806/
[29th June 2009]*linkurl:Cell-free Transcription and Translation;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/12201/
[8th January 2001]

Meet the Author

Jef Akst

Jef (an unusual nickname for Jennifer) got her master’s degree from Indiana University in April 2009 studying the mating behavior of seahorses. After four years of diving off the Gulf Coast of Tampa and performing behavioral experiments at the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga, she left research to pursue a career in science writing. As The Scientist's managing editor, Jef edited features and oversaw the production of the TS Digest and quarterly print magazine. In 2022, her feature on uterus transplantation earned first place in the trade category of the Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism. She is a member of the National Association of Science Writers.

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