Structural highlights
Publication Abstract from PubMed
Most eukaryotic promoter regions are divergently transcribed. As the RNA polymerase II pre-initiation complex (PIC) is intrinsically asymmetric and responsible for transcription in a single direction, it is unknown how divergent transcription arises. Here, the Saccharomyces cerevisiae Mediator complexed with a PIC (Med-PIC) was assembled on a divergent promoter and analyzed by cryoelectron microscopy. The structure reveals two distinct Med-PICs forming a dimer through the Mediator tail module, induced by a homodimeric activator protein localized near the dimerization interface. The tail dimer is associated with approximately 80-bp upstream DNA, such that two flanking core promoter regions are positioned and oriented in a suitable form for PIC assembly in opposite directions. Also, cryoelectron tomography visualized the progress of the PIC assembly on the two core promoter regions, providing direct evidence for the role of the Med-PIC dimer in divergent transcription.
Structural basis of a transcription pre-initiation complex on a divergent promoter.,Gorbea Colon JJ, Palao L 3rd, Chen SF, Kim HJ, Snyder L, Chang YW, Tsai KL, Murakami K Mol Cell. 2023 Feb 16;83(4):574-588.e11. doi: 10.1016/j.molcel.2023.01.011. Epub , 2023 Feb 1. PMID:36731470[1]
From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
References
- ↑ Gorbea Colón JJ, Palao L 3rd, Chen SF, Kim HJ, Snyder L, Chang YW, Tsai KL, Murakami K. Structural basis of a transcription pre-initiation complex on a divergent promoter. Mol Cell. 2023 Feb 16;83(4):574-588.e11. PMID:36731470 doi:10.1016/j.molcel.2023.01.011
