title: The Igf2/H19 muscle enhancer is an active transcriptional complex.
abstract: In eukaryotic cells, gene expression is mediated by enhancer activation of RNA polymerase at distant promoters. Recently, distinctions between enhancers and promoters have been blurred by the discovery that enhancers are associated with RNA polymerase and are sites of RNA synthesis. Here, we present an analysis of the insulin-like growth factor 2/H19 muscle enhancer. This enhancer includes a short conserved core element that is organized into chromatin typical of mammalian enhancers, binds tissue-specific transcription factors and functions on its own in vitro to activate promoter transcription. However, in a chromosomal context, this element is not sufficient to activate distant promoters. Instead, enhancer function also requires transcription in cis of a long non-coding RNA, Nctc1. Thus, the insulin-like growth factor 2/H19 enhancer is an active transcriptional complex whose own transcription is essential to its function.
authors.affiliation: Program in Genomics of Differentiation, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA and Core-Laboratory, College of Medicine, Korea University, Seoul 136-701, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Bokkee
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Eun
authors.forename: Megan L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Sampley
authors.forename: Matthew T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Van Winkle
authors.forename: Austin L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Good
authors.forename: Marika M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Kachman
authors.forename: Karl
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Pfeifer
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D002843:Chromatin / Q000378:metabolism; D004742:Enhancer Elements, Genetic; D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic; D007335:Insulin-Like Growth Factor II / Q000235:genetics*; D051379:Mice; D032446:Myoblasts / Q000378:metabolism; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D062085:RNA, Long Noncoding / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics*; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
chemical_list: D002843:Chromatin; C094335:H19 long non-coding RNA; C584324:Nctc1 lncRNA, mouse; D062085:RNA, Long Noncoding; D007335:Insulin-Like Growth Factor II