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Promoting transcription over long distances

Nature Genetics volume 49, pages 972–973 (2017)Cite this article

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Promoters and enhancers have long been regarded as distinct elements, a notion that has been challenged more recently. Two new studies now identify promoters that function as long-range enhancers in vivo to regulate the transcription of distal genes.

Gene expression has largely been attributed to two distinct genomic elements, promoters and enhancers. Whereas promoters are located at the 5′ end of genes and initiate transcription locally, enhancers activate distal promoters. Lately, this distinction has been challenged, as these elements can show similar histone modifications and can both bind RNA polymerase II and initiate transcription1,2. Indeed, enhancers can initiate transcription of alternative isoforms3 and promoters can function as enhancers in ectopic enhancer activity assays4,5,6 and form long-range contacts with other promoters6. However, whether promoters function as distal-acting enhancers in vivo has remained unclear.

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Figure 1: Promoters regulate distal gene transcription.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP), Vienna Biocenter (VBC), Vienna, Austria

    Rui R Catarino, Christoph Neumayr & Alexander Stark

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  1. Rui R Catarino
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  2. Christoph Neumayr
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  3. Alexander Stark
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Correspondence to Alexander Stark.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Catarino, R., Neumayr, C. & Stark, A. Promoting transcription over long distances. Nat Genet 49, 972–973 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/ng.3904

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