Promoter-proximal pausing of RNA Polymerase II in budding yeast

Abstract

In both prokaryotes and eukaryotes, transcription elongation is critical for gene regulation. It is, however, a discontinuous process that can be disrupted by intrinsic regulatory barriers. These barriers include promoter-proximal pausing, nucleosomes, RNA secondary structures, and the underlying DNA sequence. In contrast to most extensively studied metazoans, it has been known that budding yeast exhibited a relatively even distribution of elongating Pol II across transcription units as observed through low-resolution sequencing analysis. During this presentation, I will discuss the recent advancements made by our laboratory regarding general mechanisms of promoter-proximal pausing in budding yeast. These mechanisms operate within a specific range to enhance Pol II processivity, induce variation in elongation rate, and facilitate progression beyond polyadenylation sites located in the early gene body regions. This regulation aims to prevent the accumulation of immature and truncated transcripts.