Contacts in Context: Promoter Specificity and Macromolecular Interactions in Transcription

The coordinate and timely regulation of gene expression is essential to the proper growth and development of all organisms. Therefore, it is not surprising that transcription of protein-encoding genes is a finely tuned and highly controlled process. Work performed over the past decade has revealed much about the molecular machinery responsible for mRNA synthesis in eukaryotic cells. More than 40 different protein subunits function in a concerted manner to regulate transcription by RNA polymerase II at specific promoters in eukaryotic chromosomes. Recent experiments indicate that many of these transcription factors can interact with one another in highly specific ways to influence the activity of individual genes. Here we discuss recent insights in the field of RNA polymerase II transcription with an emphasis on aspects of promoter-specific recognition by the transcription machinery and mechanisms that govern transcription initiation.