Responses to developmental and environmental cues depend on precise spatiotemporal control of gene transcription. Enhancers, which comprise DNA elements bound by regulatory proteins, can activate target genes in response to these external signals. Recent studies have shown that enhancers are transcribed to produce enhancer RNAs (eRNAs). Do eRNAs play a functional role in activating gene expression or are they non-functional byproducts of nearby transcription machinery? The unstable nature of eRNAs and over-reliance on knockdown approaches have made elucidating the possible functions of eRNAs challenging. We focus here on studies using cloned eRNAs to study their function as transcripts, revealing roles for eRNAs in enhancer–promoter looping, recruiting transcriptional machinery, and facilitating RNA polymerase pause–release to regulate gene expression.

对发育和环境线索的反应取决于基因转录的精确时空控制。由调节蛋白结合的 DNA 元件组成的增强子可以响应这些外部信号激活靶基因。最近的研究表明，增强子被转录以产生增强子 RNA (eRNA)。eRNA 是否在激活基因表达中发挥功能性作用，还是它们是附近转录机制的非功能性副产品？eRNA 的不稳定性质和对敲低方法的过度依赖使得阐明 eRNA 的可能功能具有挑战性。我们在这里专注于使用克隆的 eRNA 来研究它们作为转录本的功能，揭示 eRNA 在增强子-启动子循环中的作用，招募转录机制，