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A recent study shows that the Mediator complex is not universally recruited to the promoters of actively transcribed genes in yeast, suggesting that the requirement for Mediator in transcription activation is an activator-dependent property.
A recent study shows that the Drosophila melanogaster proapoptotic protein Reaper inhibits protein synthesis by direct binding to 40S ribosomal subunits, which affects recognition of initiation codons and ribosomal subunit joining.
Recent publications suggest that certain proteins of the Polycomb group interact with DNA methyltransferases. This may connect the two systems that are known to mediate somatic inheritance of states of gene expression during development.
Processing of a mammalian hematopoietic microRNA precursor is suppressed when it is edited by ADARs. The edited pri-miRNA can subsequently be degraded by Tudor-SN.
A recent study reveals that the chromatin-remodeling factor SWI/SNF regulates alternative splicing by creating internal 'roadblocks' to transcriptional elongation where the phosphorylation status of RNA pol II is qualitatively changed.
Decapping of messenger RNA was thought to involve a complex of only Dcp1 and Dcp2, but new data suggest that a larger multisubunit decapping complex exists in mammals. The larger complex includes a protein that facilitates the association of the two Dcp proteins and can be recruited by specific factors that promote mRNA decay.
An important link between Wnt binding at the cell surface and nuclear β-catenin–TCF–dependent transcription has been made with the identification of kinases that promote the association of the Wnt receptor and β-catenin turnover complexes. Surprisingly, the enzymes implicated had previously been suggested to inhibit rather than promote Wnt signaling.
