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Stem cells

Ringing the changes

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology volume 9, page 6 (2008)Cite this article

Transcription of genes by RNA polymerase II (Pol II) is a precisely regulated process that requires initiation of transcription followed by productive elongation to generate full-length mRNAs. Many factors that control transcription are known to modify chromatin. But ES cells have an unusual chromatin profile: many developmental regulator genes ('bivalent' genes) that are not yet expressed are marked by histone modifications that are typical of both transcriptionally active and repressive chromatin.

Recent genome-wide studies of human cells by Guenther et al. have shown that most genes that were previously considered to be inactive (because they do not produce detectable transcripts) harbour histone marks that are typically associated with active transcription. Furthermore, chromatin immunoprecipitation coupled to DNA microarray analysis (ChIP-chip), using an antibody specific for the form of Pol II that initiates transcription, showed that Pol II is recruited to most protein-coding genes but does not complete elongation.

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References

ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER

  1. Stock, J. K. et al. Ring1-mediated ubiquitination of H2A restrains poised RNA polymerase II at bivalent genes in ES cells. Nature Cell Biol. 25 Nov 2007 (doi:10.1038/ncb1663)

FURTHER READING

  1. Guenther, M. G., Levine, S. S., Boyer, L. A., Jaenisch, R. & Young, R. A. A chromatin landmark and transcription initiation at most promoters in human cells. Cell 130, 77–88 (2007)

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Authors
  1. Francesca Cesari
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Cesari, F. Ringing the changes. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 9, 6 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrm2314

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrm2314

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