Active RNA polymerases: mobile or immobile molecular machines?

Journal article

It is widely assumed that active RNA polymerases track along their templates to produce a transcript. We test this using chromosome conformation capture and human genes switched on rapidly and synchronously by tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNFalpha); one is 221 kbp SAMD4A, which a polymerase takes more than 1 h to transcribe. Ten minutes after stimulation, the SAMD4A promoter comes together with other TNFalpha-responsive promoters. Subsequently, these contacts are lost as new downstream ones appear; contacts are invariably between sequences being transcribed. Super-resolution microscopy confirms that nascent transcripts (detected by RNA fluorescence in situ hybridization) co-localize at relevant times. Results are consistent with an alternative view of transcription: polymerases fixed in factories reel in their respective templates, so different parts of the templates transiently lie together.

Authors: Papantonis, A; Larkin, J; Wada, Y; Ohta, Y; Ihara, S

• Publication status: Published
• Journal: PLoS biology
• Volume: 8
• Issue: 7
• Pages: e1000419
• Publication date: 2010-01-01
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1000419
• EISSN: 1545-7885
• ISSN: 1544-9173
• Language: English
• Keywords: Protein Binding; Humans; In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence; Time Factors; Repressor Proteins; Cells, Cultured; Base Pairing; Introns; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha; DNA-Directed RNA Polymerases; Transcriptional Activation; Transcription, Genetic; Enzyme Activation; Chromosomes, Human, Pair 14; RNA Transport