Divergent Transcription from Active Promoters

Seila, Amy C.; Calabrese, J. Mauro; Levine, Stuart S.; Yeo, G; Rahl, Peter B.; Flynn, Ryan A.; Young, Richard A.; Sharp, Phillip A.

doi:10.1126/science.1162253

articleScienceDec 4, 2008GREEN OA

Divergent Transcription from Active Promoters

ACAmy C. Seila JMJ. Mauro Calabrese SSStuart S. Levine GYG Yeo PBPeter B. Rahl

Salk Institute for Biological Studies · Torrey Pines Institute For Molecular Studies · +2 more institutions

PubMed

Indexed incrossrefpubmed

Abstract

Transcription initiation by RNA polymerase II (RNAPII) is thought to occur unidirectionally from most genes. Here, we present evidence of widespread divergent transcription at protein-encoding gene promoters. Transcription start site-associated RNAs (TSSa-RNAs) nonrandomly flank active promoters, with peaks of antisense and sense short RNAs at 250 nucleotides upstream and 50 nucleotides downstream of TSSs, respectively. Northern analysis shows that TSSa-RNAs are subsets of an RNA population 20 to 90 nucleotides in length. Promoter-associated RNAPII and H3K4-trimethylated histones, transcription initiation hallmarks, colocalize at sense and antisense TSSa-RNA positions; however, H3K79-dimethylated histones,…

Citation impact

912

total citations

FWCI: 32.71
Percentile: 100%
References: 18

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Authors

8

Topics & keywords

Topics

Keywords

Promoter
Transcription (linguistics)
RNA polymerase II
Biology
Gene
RNA
Genetics
Molecular biology

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