Calcium signaling and transcription: elongation, DoGs, and eRNAs.

The calcium ion (Ca) is a key intracellular signaling molecule with far-reaching effects on many cellular processes. One of the most important such Ca regulated processes is transcription. A body of literature describes the effect of Ca signaling on transcription initiation as occurring mainly through activation of gene-specific transcription factors by Ca-induced signaling cascades. However, the reach of Ca extends far beyond the first step of transcription. In fact, Ca can regulate all phases of transcription, with additional effects on transcription-associated events such as alternative splicing. Importantly, Ca signaling mediates reduced transcription termination in response to certain stress conditions. This reduction allows readthrough transcription, generating a highly inducible and diverse class of downstream of gene containing transcripts (DoGs) that we have recently described.