First published online September 7, 2006
Journal of Cell Science 119, 1805e (2006)
© The Company of Biologists Limited
Transcription sites: pair and pair alike
Transcription by RNA polymerase II occurs in discrete transcription sites scattered throughout the nucleus. Recent work indicates that coordinately regulated genes are recruited to the same transcription sites, but what controls their recruitment to these sites? Alexandra Binnie, Nicholas Proudfoot and co-authors have used the transcription domains (TDs) formed when transiently transfected plasmids are transcribed as a model system to study this process (see p. 3876). By co-transfecting plasmid pairs into HeLa cells, they show that plasmids containing homologous transcribed sequences form shared TDs. By contrast, those containing non-homologous transcribed sequences enter separate TDs, even if they have homologous backbone or promoter sequences. They also find that a low copy number promotes formation of TDs, but high concentrations of one plasmid do not inhibit formation of TDs by a non-homologous, low-copy-number plasmid. The authors therefore propose that homology between transcribed sequences drives recruitment of genes into TDs; a similar mechanism might recruit coordinately regulated endogenous genes to shared transcription sites.
Related articles in JCS:
- Homologous gene sequences mediate transcription-domain formation
- Alexandra Binnie, Pedro Castelo-Branco, Joan Monks, and Nicholas J. Proudfoot
JCS 2006 119: 3876-3887.
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