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Updated: Sep 8, 2025

Single-Molecule Imaging of EWS-FLI1 Condensates Assembling on DNA
Published on: September 8, 2021
Structural insights into assembly of transcription preinitiation complex
1Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, Institutes of Biomedical Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Genetic Engineering, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, School of Life Sciences, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Radiation Oncology, and Shanghai Key Laboratory of Medical Epigenetics, Shanghai Medical College of Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China.
Abstract:
RNA polymerase II (Pol II)-mediated transcription in eukaryotic cells starts with assembly of preinitiation complex (PIC) on core promoter, a DNA sequence of ∼100 base pairs. The transcription PIC consists of Pol II and general transcription factors TFIID, TFIIA, TFIIB, TFIIF, TFIIE, and TFIIH. Previous structural studies focused on PIC assembled on TATA box promoters with TFIID replaced by its subunit, TATA box-binding protein (TBP). However, the megadalton TFIID complex is essential for promoter recognition, TBP loading onto promoter, and PIC assembly for almost all Pol II-mediated transcription, especially on the TATA-less promoters, which account for ∼85% of core promoters of human coding genes. The functions of TFIID could not be replaced by TBP. The recent breakthrough in structure determination of TFIID-based PIC complexes in different assembly stages revealed mechanistic insights into PIC assembly on TATA box and TATA-less promotes and provided a framework for further investigation of transcription initiation.
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