QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s):
Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents

First published online August 13, 2003

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Related articles in JCS Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Mediator: the middleman in transcription

Stimulation of transcription in vivo requires coactivator proteins. These include chromatin remodellers, histone acetyltransferases and mediator - a complex that links transcriptional activators with the general transcription machinery. In a Commentary on p. 3667, Brian Lewis and Danny Reinberg review work that is shedding light on the roles of the mediator and its different components. Recent studies indicate that the timing of mediator recruitment varies, depending on the promoter. This might reflect the existence of different types of preinitiation complex or different mediator complexes. Indeed, mediator has been shown to comprise distinct functional modules (Srb4, Gal11/Sin4 and Med9/Med10), and studies in various organisms indicate that particular components are required for specific developmental processes. Moreover, transient expression assays reveal a similar dependence of activators on different mediator proteins. In yeast, for example, transactivation by the VP16 transcription factor requires three mediator components (Med2p, Pgd1p and Sin4p), whereas GCN4 uses only one (Sin4p). Lewis and Reinberg propose a model for mediator function that accounts for these observations: they suggest it acts as a transcriptional scaffold whose configuration depends on the activators present at the promoter and ultimately influences the magnitude of transcription.

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

Related articles in JCS:

The mediator coactivator complex: functional and physical roles in transcriptional regulation

Brian A. Lewis and Danny Reinberg
JCS 2003 116: 3667-3675. [Abstract] [Full Text]  

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Related articles in JCS Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?