MYC is a transcription factor that is commonly overexpressed in cancer, but its key oncogenic transcriptional targets have remained elusive. Two new studies manipulated MYC expression levels in normal mouse cells and human cancer cells and analysed the effects on MYC occupancy and gene expression genome-wide. In all cell types, they found that, on upregulation, MYC widely associates with the promoters of already active genes to enhance transcriptional output further, particularly through releasing paused RNA polymerase II. Thus, MYC seems to function as a global amplifier of the transcriptional output of a particular cell type.
ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPERS
Lin, C. Y. et al. Transcriptional amplification in tumor cells with elevated c-Myc. Cell 151, 56–67 (2012)
Nie, Z. et al. c-Myc is a universal amplifier of expressed genes in lymphocytes and embryonic stem cells. Cell 151, 68–79 (2012)
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Burgess, D. MYC provides a global boost. Nat Rev Genet 13, 758 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg3364
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg3364
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