Transcription factories: gene expression in unions?

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The fundamental process of gene transcription can be reconstituted in vitro, but an understanding of how it operates and how it is regulated in vivo is lacking. One hypothesis suggests that, rather than RNA polymerases being recruited to the promoters of active genes, it is the gene loci that must move to sites in the nucleus — termed transcription factories — where RNA polymerase II is anchored. Cell biology approaches have driven the transcription factory model. Active genes can be seen in close spatial proximity to one another in the nucleus, at sites coincident with high concentrations of the active elongating form of RNA polymerase II. Molecular chromatin conformation capture (3C)-based approaches also indicate a spatial clustering of active genes in the cell nucleus. An unanswered question is whether transcription factories are a cause or a consequence of gene expression. The transcription factory model has implications for the evolution of gene order along and between chromosomes, and for the generation of chromosome translocations.