Kim Yea Woon, Lee Sungkung, Yun Jangmi, Kim AeRi
*Department of Molecular Biology, College of Natural Sciences, Pusan National University, Busan 609-735, Korea.
Biosci Rep. 2015 Mar 18;35(2):e00179. doi: 10.1042/BSR20140126.
Enhancers are closely positioned with actively transcribed target genes by chromatin looping. Non-coding RNAs are often transcribed on active enhancers, referred to as eRNAs (enhancer RNAs). To explore the kinetics of enhancer-promoter looping and eRNA transcription during transcriptional activation, we induced the β-globin locus by chemical treatment and analysed cross-linking frequency between the β-globin gene and locus control region (LCR) and the amount of eRNAs transcribed on the LCR in a time course manner. The cross-linking frequency was increased after chemical induction but before the transcriptional activation of gene in the β-globin locus. Transcription of eRNAs was increased in concomitant with the increase in cross-linking frequency. These results show that chromatin looping and eRNA transcription precedes the transcriptional activation of gene. Concomitant occurrence of the two events suggests functional relationship between them.
增强子通过染色质环化与活跃转录的靶基因紧密定位。非编码RNA通常在活跃的增强子上转录，称为eRNA（增强子RNA）。为了探索转录激活过程中增强子-启动子环化和eRNA转录的动力学，我们通过化学处理诱导β-珠蛋白基因座，并以时间进程的方式分析β-珠蛋白基因与基因座控制区（LCR）之间的交联频率以及LCR上转录的eRNA量。化学诱导后但在β-珠蛋白基因座中基因转录激活之前，交联频率增加。eRNA的转录随着交联频率的增加而增加。这些结果表明染色质环化和eRNA转录先于基因的转录激活。这两个事件的同时发生表明它们之间存在功能关系。
