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Updated: Jan 23, 2026
Artificial RNA Polymerase II Elongation Complexes for Dissecting Co-transcriptional RNA Processing Events
Published on: May 13, 2019
RNA-induced initiation of transcriptional silencing (RITS) complex structure and function
Sonali Bhattacharjee1, Benjamin Roche1, Robert A Martienssen1
1a Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Howard Hughes Medical Institute , Cold Spring Harbor , NY , USA.
Abstract:
Heterochromatic regions of the genome are epigenetically regulated to maintain a heritable '"silent state"'. In fission yeast and other organisms, epigenetic silencing is guided by nascent transcripts, which are targeted by the RNA interference pathway. The key effector complex of the RNA interference pathway consists of small interfering RNA molecules (siRNAs) associated with Argonaute, assembled into the RNA-induced transcriptional silencing (RITS) complex. This review focuses on our current understanding of how RITS promotes heterochromatin formation, and in particular on the role of Argonaute-containing complexes in many other functions such as quelling, release of RNA polymerases, cellular quiescence and genome defense.
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