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Updated: May 30, 2026

Humanized Mediator Release Assay as a Read-Out for Allergen Potency
Published on: June 29, 2021
Origins and activity of the Mediator complex
Ronald C Conaway1, Joan Weliky Conaway
1Stowers Institute for Medical Research, 1000 E. 50th Street, Kansas City, MO 64110, USA. rcc@stowers.org
None:
The Mediator is a large, multisubunit RNA polymerase II transcriptional regulator that was first identified in Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a factor required for responsiveness of Pol II and the general initiation factors to DNA binding transactivators. Since its discovery in yeast, Mediator has been shown to be an integral and highly evolutionarily conserved component of the Pol II transcriptional machinery with critical roles in multiple stages of transcription, from regulation of assembly of the Pol II initiation complex to regulation of Pol II elongation. Here we provide a brief overview of the evolutionary origins of Mediator, its subunit composition, and its remarkably diverse collection of activities in Pol II transcription.
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