Transcription often initiates divergently but it only proceeds in the sense direction. These authors, working in mouse embryonic stem cells, have elucidated a mechanism for regulating divergent transcription. They find that antisense transcripts are cleaved and polyadenylated shortly after initiation. This is due to asymmetric positioning of sequence elements: sense transcripts are depleted for polyadenylation sites and are enriched for binding sites for the U1 SNP ribonucleoprotein. Depletion of the U1 SNP led to promoter-proximal cleavage in the sense direction, indicating a regulatory role for this ribonucleoprotein.
References
Almada, A. E. et al. Promoter directionality is controlled by U1 snRNP and polyadenylation signals. Nature http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature12349 (2013)
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Stower, H. Regulating transcription directionality. Nat Rev Genet 14, 518 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg3544
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg3544