Activation and repression at the heart of human RNA polymerase III

Proteins that regulate transcription can do so either via direct contact with RNA Polymerase or through indirect interactions facilitated by adaptors, mediators, histone-modifying proteins, and nucleosome remodelers. Direct interactions to activate transcription is seen in bacteria as well as in some eukaryotic genes. In these cases, upstream activation sequences are adjacent to the promoters, and the activator proteins interact directly with the transcriptional machinery. For example, in...

RNA Polymerase (RNAP) is conserved in all animals, with bacterial, archaeal, and eukaryotic RNAPs sharing significant sequence, structural, and functional similarities. Among the three eukaryotic RNAPs, RNA Polymerase II is most similar to bacterial RNAP in terms of both structural organization and folding topologies of the enzyme subunits. However, these similarities are not reflected in their mechanism of action.
All three eukaryotic RNAPs require specific transcription factors, of which the...

Initiation is the first step of transcription in eukaryotes. Prokaryotic RNA Polymerase (RNAP) can bind to the template DNA and start transcribing. On the other hand, transcription in eukaryotes requires additional proteins, called transcription factors, to first bind to the promoter region in the DNA template. This binding helps recruit the specific RNAP that can assemble on the DNA and start transcription.
The promoters and enhancers and their accessory proteins allow tight regulation of...

Gene transcription is regulated by the synergistic action of several proteins that form a complex at a gene regulatory site. This is observed in eukaryotes, where the regulation of gene expression is a complex process. Regulatory proteins in eukaryotes can broadly be classified into two types – regulators that bind directly to specific DNA sequences and co-regulators that associate with regulatory proteins but cannot directly bind to the DNA. These co-regulators are further divided into...