Project description:RNA polymerase II (Pol II) pauses downstream of the transcription initiation site before beginning productive elongation. This pause is a key component of metazoan gene expression regulation. Some promoters have a strong disposition for Pol II pausing and often mediate faster, more synchronous changes in expression. This requires multiple rounds of transcription and thus cannot rely solely on pause release. But it is unclear how pausing affects the initiation of new transcripts during consecutive rounds of transcription. Using our recently developed ChIP-nexus method, we find that Pol II pausing inhibits new initiation. We propose that paused Pol II helps prevent new initiation between transcription bursts, which may reduce noise.
Project description:RNA polymerase II (Pol II) pauses downstream of the transcription initiation site before beginning productive elongation. This pause is a key component of metazoan gene expression regulation. Some promoters have a strong disposition for Pol II pausing and often mediate faster, more synchronous changes in expression. This requires multiple rounds of transcription and thus cannot rely solely on pause release. But it is unclear how pausing affects the initiation of new transcripts during consecutive rounds of transcription. Using our recently developed ChIP-nexus method, we find that Pol II pausing inhibits new initiation. We propose that paused Pol II helps prevent new initiation between transcription bursts, which may reduce noise.
Project description:RNA polymerase II (Pol II) pauses downstream of the transcription initiation site before beginning productive elongation. This pause is a key component of metazoan gene expression regulation. Some promoters have a strong disposition for Pol II pausing and often mediate faster, more synchronous changes in expression. This requires multiple rounds of transcription and thus cannot rely solely on pause release. But it is unclear how pausing affects the initiation of new transcripts during consecutive rounds of transcription. Using our recently developed ChIP-nexus method, we find that Pol II pausing inhibits new initiation. We propose that paused Pol II helps prevent new initiation between transcription bursts, which may reduce noise.
Project description:RNA polymerase II (Pol II) pauses downstream of the transcription initiation site before beginning productive elongation. This pause is a key component of metazoan gene expression regulation. Some promoters have a strong disposition for Pol II pausing and often mediate faster, more synchronous changes in expression. This requires multiple rounds of transcription and thus cannot rely solely on pause release. But it is unclear how pausing affects the initiation of new transcripts during consecutive rounds of transcription. Using our recently developed ChIP-nexus method, we find that Pol II pausing inhibits new initiation. We propose that paused Pol II helps prevent new initiation between transcription bursts, which may reduce noise.
Project description:Control of RNA transcription is critical for the development and homeostasis of all organisms, and can occur at multiple steps of the transcription cycle, including RNA polymerase II (Pol II) recruitment, initiation, promoter-proximal pausing, and elongation. That Pol II accumulates on many promoters in metazoans implies that steps other than Pol II recruitment are rate-limiting and regulated 1-6. By integrating genome-wide Pol II chromatin immunoprecipition (ChIP) and Global Run-On (GRO) genomic data sets from Drosophila cells, we examined critical features of Pol II near promoters. The accumulation of promoter-proximal polymerase is widespread, occurring on 70% of active genes; and unlike elongating Pol II within the body of genes, promoter Pol II are held paused by factors like NELF, unable to transcribe unless nuclei are treated with strong detergent. Notably, we find that the vast majority of promoter-proximal Pol II detected by ChIP are paused, thereby identifying the biochemical nature of this rate-limiting step in transcription. Finally, we demonstrate that Drosophila promoters do not have the upstream divergent Pol II that is seen so broadly and prominently on mammalian promoters. We postulate this is a consequence of Drosophila’s extensive use of directional core promoter sequence elements, which contrasts with mammals’ lack of directional elements and prevalence of CpG island core promoters. In support of this idea, we show that the fraction of mammalian promoters containing a TATA box core element is dramatically depleted of upstream divergent transcription.
Project description:Control of RNA transcription is critical for the development and homeostasis of all organisms, and can occur at multiple steps of the transcription cycle, including RNA polymerase II (Pol II) recruitment, initiation, promoter-proximal pausing, and elongation. That Pol II accumulates on many promoters in metazoans implies that steps other than Pol II recruitment are rate-limiting and regulated 1-6. By integrating genome-wide Pol II chromatin immunoprecipition (ChIP) and Global Run-On (GRO) genomic data sets from Drosophila cells, we examined critical features of Pol II near promoters. The accumulation of promoter-proximal polymerase is widespread, occurring on 70% of active genes; and unlike elongating Pol II within the body of genes, promoter Pol II are held paused by factors like NELF, unable to transcribe unless nuclei are treated with strong detergent. Notably, we find that the vast majority of promoter-proximal Pol II detected by ChIP are paused, thereby identifying the biochemical nature of this rate-limiting step in transcription. Finally, we demonstrate that Drosophila promoters do not have the upstream divergent Pol II that is seen so broadly and prominently on mammalian promoters. We postulate this is a consequence of Drosophila’s extensive use of directional core promoter sequence elements, which contrasts with mammals’ lack of directional elements and prevalence of CpG island core promoters. In support of this idea, we show that the fraction of mammalian promoters containing a TATA box core element is dramatically depleted of upstream divergent transcription. ChIP-seq data set for Pol II (rpb3) (2 replicates).
Project description:Control of RNA transcription is critical for the development and homeostasis of all organisms, and can occur at multiple steps of the transcription cycle, including RNA polymerase II (Pol II) recruitment, initiation, promoter-proximal pausing, and elongation. That Pol II accumulates on many promoters in metazoans implies that steps other than Pol II recruitment are rate-limiting and regulated 1-6. By integrating genome-wide Pol II chromatin immunoprecipition (ChIP) and Global Run-On (GRO) genomic data sets from Drosophila cells, we examined critical features of Pol II near promoters. The accumulation of promoter-proximal polymerase is widespread, occurring on 70% of active genes; and unlike elongating Pol II within the body of genes, promoter Pol II are held paused by factors like NELF, unable to transcribe unless nuclei are treated with strong detergent. Notably, we find that the vast majority of promoter-proximal Pol II detected by ChIP are paused, thereby identifying the biochemical nature of this rate-limiting step in transcription. Finally, we demonstrate that Drosophila promoters do not have the upstream divergent Pol II that is seen so broadly and prominently on mammalian promoters. We postulate this is a consequence of Drosophila’s extensive use of directional core promoter sequence elements, which contrasts with mammals’ lack of directional elements and prevalence of CpG island core promoters. In support of this idea, we show that the fraction of mammalian promoters containing a TATA box core element is dramatically depleted of upstream divergent transcription.