Dietary sugar promotes gene activation in intestinal cell chromatin of adult rats.

The effect of dietary sucrose on transcription activity of chromatin from intestinal cells of adult rats was investigated. Chromatin-bound RNA polymerase II activity was significantly enhanced after feeding sucrose to rats. RNA polymerase II transcribes the genes coding for pre-messenger RNA. The results indicate that feeding of sucrose increased the synthesis of pre-messenger RNA molecules coding for specific proteins which are involved in the adaptive processes of sucrose hydrolysis in intestinal cells.