Stalled Hox promoters as chromosomal boundaries
- 1Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Division of Genetics, Genomics, and Development, Center for Integrative Genomics, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, USA;
- 2Graduate School of East-West Medical Science, Kyung Hee University, Global Campus, Giheung-gu, Yongin-si Gyeonggi-do, 446-701, Korea
Abstract
Many developmental control genes contain stalled RNA Polymerase II (Pol II) in the early Drosophila embryo, including four of the eight Hox genes. Here, we present evidence that the stalled Hox promoters possess an intrinsic insulator activity. The enhancer-blocking activities of these promoters are dependent on general transcription factors that inhibit Pol II elongation, including components of the DSIF and NELF complexes. The activities of conventional insulators are also impaired in embryos containing reduced levels of DSIF and NELF. Thus, promoter-proximal stalling factors might help promote insulator–promoter interactions. We propose that stalled promoters help organize gene complexes within chromosomal loop domains.
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Footnotes
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↵3 Corresponding authors.
E-MAIL vschopra{at}berkeley.edu; FAX (510) 643-9096.
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↵4 E-MAIL mlevine{at}berkeley.edu; FAX (510) 643-5785.
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Article published online ahead of print. Article and publication date are online at http://www.genesdev.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gad.1807309.
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Supplemental material is available at http://www.genesdev.org.
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- Received March 31, 2009.
- Accepted May 19, 2009.
- Copyright © 2009 by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press
