Pausing and pause release of RNA polymerase II (Pol II) in early transcription elongation are key regulatory events for several genes and have important roles in development, homeostasis and disease. Liu and colleagues now show that distal enhancers have a role in regulating pause release. They demonstrate that BRD4 and JMJD6 recruitment to these 'antipause enhancers' in cultured human cells causes removal of a repressive chromatin mark at these enhancers, which allows them to loop to the promoter. This ultimately results in pause release of Pol II and subsequent activation of a large subset of genes.
References
Liu, W. et al. Brd4 and JMJD6-associated anti-pause enhancers in regulation of transcriptional pause release. Cell 155, 1581–1595 (2013)
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Lokody, I. BRD4 and JMJD6 regulate antipause enhancers. Nat Rev Genet 15, 67 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg3671
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg3671
