New roles for old characters: an educational primer for use with "Vps factors are required for efficient transcription elongation in budding yeast".

An article from Alan Hinnebusch's laboratory in the March 2013 issue of GENETICS establishes an exciting new link between proteins with well-established roles in the endomembrane system and the process of transcription elongation. This Primer article provides tools needed for students to fully appreciate, analyze, and critically evaluate the experiments and interpretations of Gaur et al. (2013). The primer includes detailed descriptions of techniques used in the study, such as the chromatin immunoprecipitation assay and assays for transcription elongation, and it provides a framework to facilitate an understanding of how a combination of genetic, biochemical, and cell microscopy experimental approaches were used by the authors to converge on a single major conclusion. Suggestions for using this Primer article in an undergraduate or graduate-level course in conjunction with the original article to promote student learning are also presented.