title: Looping back to leap forward: transcription enters a new era.
abstract: Comparative genome analyses reveal that organismal complexity scales not with gene number but with gene regulation. Recent efforts indicate that the human genome likely contains hundreds of thousands of enhancers, with a typical gene embedded in a milieu of tens of enhancers. Proliferation of cis-regulatory DNAs is accompanied by increased complexity and functional diversification of transcriptional machineries recognizing distal enhancers and core promoters and by the high-order spatial organization of genetic elements. We review progress in unraveling one of the outstanding mysteries of modern biology: the dynamic communication of remote enhancers with target promoters in the specification of cellular identity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94707, USA. Electronic address: mlevine@berkeley.edu.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Levine
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94707, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, CIRM Center of Excellence, Li Ka Shing Center for Biomedical and Health Sciences, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94707, USA.
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cattoglio
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94707, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, CIRM Center of Excellence, Li Ka Shing Center for Biomedical and Health Sciences, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94707, USA. Electronic address: jmlim@uclink4.berkeley.edu.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tjian
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D012321:DNA-Directed RNA Polymerases / Q000378:metabolism; D004742:Enhancer Elements, Genetic; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D006801:Humans; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000378:metabolism; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
chemical_list: D014157:Transcription Factors; D012321:DNA-Directed RNA Polymerases