Potent Transcriptional Interference by Pausing of RNA Polymerases over a Downstream Promoter

Overview

Journal Mol Cell

Publisher Cell Press

Specialty Cell Biology

Date 2009 Jun 16

PMID 19524535

Citations 56

Authors

Adam C Palmer

Alexandra Ahlgren-Berg

J Barry Egan

Ian B Dodd

Keith E Shearwin

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Elongating RNA polymerases (RNAPs) can interfere with transcription from downstream promoters by inhibiting DNA binding by RNAP and activators. However, combining quantitative measurement with mathematical modeling, we show that simple RNAP elongation cannot produce the strong asymmetric interference observed between a natural face-to-face promoter pair in bacteriophage lambda. Pausing of elongating polymerases over the RNAP-binding site of the downstream promoter is demonstrated in vivo and is shown by modeling to account for the increased interference. The model successfully predicts the effects on interference of treatments increasing or reducing pausing. Gene regulation by pausing-enhanced occlusion provides a general and potentially widespread mechanism by which even weak converging or tandem transcription, either coding or noncoding, can bring about strong in cis repression.

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