Yeast, the simple organism essential for making beer and bread, revealed to researchers at Cornell University a key mechanism in the control of genes.
It was long thought that gene transcription – the elaborate process our cells use to read genetic information stored in DNA – was only activated when certain regulatory factors traveled to specific DNA sequences. In new research, a team of Cornell scientists have discovered that some genes have their transcriptional regulatory factors and cofactors already in place, but in a latent state. With the proper signals, these “in balance” genes become very active.
Using CRISPR techniques, researchers removed parts of yeast’s transcription machinery to systematically examine the role they play in gene regulation. Yeast and humans have mostly the same molecular machinery to regulate their genes, so yeast provides an excellent model for understanding gene regulation in humans.
“It’s like the game of Jenga, where you pull a block of wood out of a tower of blocks and see if it all comes crashing down. This is how we learn how protein machines work inside cells. “, said B. Franklin Pugh, professor of molecular biology. and genetics and corresponding author of the study.
“The value of being prepared is that certain genes, like environmental response genes, can respond quickly to a changing environment; for example, when yeast encounters and metabolizes sugars in bread, causing bread dough to rise” , Pugh said.
“Building on years of existing research and combining it with modern and elegant genomic tools has helped us fill gaps in current knowledge as well as make new discoveries,” said Chitvan Mittal, first author and associate of research at the Baker Institute for Animal Health. at the College of Veterinary Medicine.
The research has been published in Genes & Development.
Yeast epigenome map reveals details of gene regulation
Chitvan Mittal et al, A Selective Integrated SAGA and TFIID PIC Assembly Pathway for Balanced and Induced Promoters, Genes & Development (2022). DOI: 10.1101/gad.350026.122
Provided by Cornell University
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