Chromatin remodelling and the transcription cycle
Vikki M. Weake and Jerry L. Workman
Transcription by RNA polymerase II (Pol II) occurs in the context ofchromatin within a eukaryotic cell. Chromatin is generally inhibitory
to transcription, so a variety of mechanisms are required to activatetranscription from a nucleosomal template. One of the first steps is thatlarge co-activator complexes interact with small activator proteins toidentify gene promoters that are ready to be transcribed. Nucleosome
remodelling complexes that use energy from ATP to move or displace

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References

Abbreviations

Acknowledgements

Fuda, N. J., Ardehali, M. B. & Lis, J. T. Defining mechanisms that regulate RNA
polymerase II transcription in vivo. Nature 461, 186–192 (2009) | Weake, V. M. &Workman, J. L. Inducible gene expression: diverse regulatory mechanisms. Nature
Rev. Genet. 11, 426–437 (2010) | Kornberg, R. D. The molecular basis of eukaryotic
transcription. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 104, 12955–12961 (2007) | Orphanides, G.
& Reinberg, D. A unified theory of gene expression. Cell 108, 439–451 (2002) |Ptashne, M. & Gann, A. Transcriptional activation by recruitment. Nature 386,569–577 (1997) | Roeder, R. G. Transcriptional regulation and the role of diverse
coactivators in animal cells. FEBS Lett. 579, 909–915 (2005)

CDK, cell division protein kinase; COMPASS, complex
proteins associated with Set1; DSIF, DRB sensitivity-inducing
factor; GAF, GAGA factor; HSF, heat shock factor; Hsp70,
heat shock protein 70; NELF, negative elongation factor;
PARP, poly(ADP)-ribose polymerase; P-TEFb, positivetranscription elongation factor b; SWI/SNF, switch/sucrose
non-fermentable; TBP, TATA box binding protein; TFII,transcription factor II; Tra1, transcription associated protein 1;
UAS, upstream activating sequence

The authors are at the Stowers Institute for Medical
Research, Kansas City, Missouri, USA. They thank membersof the Workman laboratory for helpful comments andsuggestions during preparation of this poster.
Edited by Mary Muers; copyedited by Lewis Packwood;
designed by Patrick Morgan.
© 2011 Nature Publishing Group.
http://www.nature.com/nrg/posters/remodelling