JCB logo
Direct PCR from Finnzymes
  Home | Help | Feedback | Subscriptions | Archive | Search | Table of Contents
Published online 20 March 2006. doi:10.1083/jcb.200512083
The Rockefeller University Press, 0021-9525 $8.00
JCB, Volume 172, Number 7, 967-971
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF, 692K)
Right arrow PPT slides of all figures
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new content in the JCB
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via CrossRef
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Percipalle, P.
Right arrow Articles by Visa, N.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Percipalle, P.
Right arrow Articles by Visa, N.
Right arrowPubmed/NCBI databases
*Substance via MeSH
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati  
What's this?

Mini-Review

 Molecular functions of nuclear actin in transcription

Piergiorgio Percipalle1 and Neus Visa2

1 Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Karolinska Institutet, SE-117 77 Stockholm, Sweden
2 Department of Molecular Biology and Functional Genomics, Stockholm University, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden

Correspondence to Piergiorgio Percipalle: piergiorgio.percipalle{at}ki.se; or Neus Visa: neus.visa{at}molbio.su.se


Abstract
Actin is not only a major cytoskeletal component in all eukaryotic cells but also a nuclear protein that plays a role in gene transcription. We put together data from in vitro and in vivo experiments that begin to provide insights into the molecular mechanisms by which actin functions in transcription. Recent studies performed in vitro have suggested that actin, in direct contact with the transcription apparatus, is required in an early step of transcription that is common to all three eukaryotic RNA polymerases. In addition, there is evidence from in vivo studies that actin is involved in the transcription elongation of class II genes. In this case, actin is bound to a specific subset of premessenger RNA binding proteins, and the actin–messenger RNP complex may constitute a molecular platform for recruitment of histone-modifying enzymes. We discuss a general model for actin in RNA polymerase II transcription whereby actin works as a conformational switch in conjunction with specific adaptors to facilitate the remodeling of large macromolecular assemblies at the promoter and along the active gene.

Abbreviations used in this paper: Arp, actin-related protein; CTD, COOH-terminal domain of the largest subunit of RNA polymerase II; HAT, histone acetyltransferase; hnRNP, heterogeneous nuclear RNP; NM1, nuclear myosin 1; rDNA, ribosomal DNA.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:



  Home | Help | Feedback | Subscriptions | Archive | Search | Table of Contents