Ferrari: Lecture VII Flashcards
Eukaryotic Gene Control
What makes the difference between different cells of the same organism?
the regulation of gene expression (how the transcriptome and the proteasome are regulated)
Are the decision taken at a molecular level during development and differentiation reversible?
not in complex organisms (only in bacteria)
What are the regions on the DNA that control gene expression?
promoter
regulatory sequences
regulatory proteins & transcription factors
interfering RNA
Promoter
essential part of the gene responsible for expression by binding the RNA polymerase with the accessory TF (true for polymerase I, II and II in eukaryotes)
Regulatory Sequences
allow the binding of the regulatory proteins
Regulatory Proteins and Transcription Factors
role in gene expression and regulation
(RNA can also control gene expression)
Interfering RNA
regulation of gene expression
How are things brought closer to the promoter?
looping of DNA (job of enhancers)
What are 2 main actors responsible for the looping of DNA?
trans-acting proteins
cis-acting elements
trans-acting proteins
in transcription factors
cis-acting elements
on the DNA; they are sequences recognized by the TF on DNA
How is transcription controlled?
binding of trans-acting proteins to the cis-acting regulatory DNA sequences
ENCODE Project
objective was to identify all the elements on the DNA and do all the annotations on them in a functional way
Sequences of Regulatory Proteins (cis-regions) act in genes that are usually involved in:
DNA replication
chromatin condensation
chromosome regulation
gene expression
What is the most used model of simple eukaryotes?
Yeast Saccharomyces Cerevisiae and Saccharomyces Probe
WHy are Yeast Saccharomyces Cerevisiae and Saccharomyces Probe the most used simple eukaryotic model?
the regulatory regions are very short, they are easy to study, and they are close to the core promoter
What was hard about studying complex eukaryotes?
the elements (enhancers, insulators, or silencers) were far away and hard to identify, but now we know the distance between promoter and regulatory sequences
Enhancers
cis-acting elements on the DNA which offer multiple binding sites for TF
What is the general size of enhancers?
500bp
What do enhancers do?
relay different regulatory signals that come from activators to the basal machinery of the promoter
Enhanceosome
soma of the enhancer that defines all the TF that are bound to the same enhancer (needed because there are multiple binding sites for different proteins on the enhancer)
What is an example of the enhanceosome?
beta-interferon gene
In the beta-interferon complex, what is the function of HMG1?
bends the DNA and allows for the interaction between proteins and DNA at different distances
How many TF are there in humans?
more than 3000
What are the 3 classes of regulatory proteins?
sequence-specific DNA-binding proteins
general transcription factors (GTFs)
chromatin remodeling and modification complex
general transcription factors (GTFs)
recognize the same sequence in all the genes in the promoters
part of the RNA polymerase II complex
required for promoter recognition and catalysis of RNA synthesis
chromatin remodeling and modification complex
change chromatin by assisting the transcriptional machinery in order to facilitate access of proteins to DNA
RNA polymerase II
initiates transcription without TF because it has affinity for the DNA, but without the TF, it cannot bind in a specific way
What do transcription factors do for RNA polymerase II?
bring specific polymerase to a specific region
RNA polymerase II promoter
region upstream of the coding region for the +1 (+1 is where transcription starts and the promoter is usually 200bp upstream
What defines a core promoter?
core promoter is the minimal sequence needed for effective transcription