Widespread Enhancer Activity from Core Promoters

Alejandra Medina-Rivera (1) , David Santiago-Algarra , Denis Puthier (2) , Salvatore Spicuglia (2)

1 Laboratorio Internacional de Investigación sobre el Genoma Humano Juriquilla
2 TAGC - Theories and Approaches of Genomic Complexity

Gene expression in higher eukaryotes is precisely regulated in time and space through the interplay between promoters and gene-distal regulatory regions, known as enhancers. The original definition of enhancers implies the ability to activate gene expression remotely, while promoters entail the capability to locally induce gene expression. Despite the conventional distinction between them, promoters and enhancers share many genomic and epigenomic features. One intriguing finding in the gene regulation field comes from the observation that many core promoter regions display enhancer activity. Recent high-throughput reporter assays along with CRISPR/Cas9-related approaches have indicated that this phenomenon is relatively common and might have strong impact in our global understanding of genome organization and gene expression regulation. .

Mots clés: Enhancer; Promoters; ePromoters; Gene regulation; Reporter-assays; CRISPR/Cas9

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]

Alejandra Medina-Rivera, David Santiago-Algarra, Denis Puthier, Salvatore Spicuglia. Widespread Enhancer Activity from Core Promoters. Trends in Biochemical Sciences, 2018, 43 (6), pp.452 - 468. ⟨10.1016/j.tibs.2018.03.004⟩. ⟨hal-01808594⟩