50 years of eukaryotic transcription

The biochemical identification of three nuclear RNA polymerases fundamentally altered our understanding of gene regulation.

In this Review, Bob Roeder offers a personal, historical perspective of the landmark studies that elucidated the mechanism and regulation of eukaryotic transcription over five decades, from the initial discovery of three nuclear RNA polymerases to the structural, genomic and imaging approaches that continue to expand our understanding of the function of complex regulatory networks.

James Kadonaga provides a retrospective of the biochemical analyses that demonstrated the role of chromatin in the regulation of RNA polymerase II transcription.

This personal Perspective by Joan and Ron Conaway describes the biochemical identification and characterization of three key transcription elongation factors, TFIIS, Elongin and ELL, and summarizes how the delineation of their functions has informed the understanding of the regulatory mechanisms that control elongation by RNA polymerase II.

This historical Perspective by John Lis summarizes the array of complementary biochemical, genetic, optical and genome-wide approaches that have enabled dissection of eukaryotic transcriptional mechanisms in their native, cellular environment, and considers the future insights offered by emerging technologies of ever-increasing sensitivity and resolution.