The transcription factor activity gradient (TAG) model: contemplating a contact-independent mechanism for enhancer–promoter communication

  1. Xavier Darzacq1
  1. 1University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, USA;
  2. 2Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
  1. Corresponding author: darzacq{at}berkeley.edu

Abstract

How distal cis-regulatory elements (e.g., enhancers) communicate with promoters remains an unresolved question of fundamental importance. Although transcription factors and cofactors are known to mediate this communication, the mechanism by which diffusible molecules relay regulatory information from one position to another along the chromosome is a biophysical puzzle—one that needs to be revisited in light of recent data that cannot easily fit into previous solutions. Here we propose a new model that diverges from the textbook enhancer–promoter looping paradigm and offer a synthesis of the literature to make a case for its plausibility, focusing on the coactivator p300.

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Footnotes

This article, published in Genes & Development, is available under a Creative Commons License (Attribution 4.0 International), as described at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

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