title: Alternative polyadenylation coupled to transcription initiation: Insights from ELAV-mediated 3' UTR extension.
abstract: Transcription initiation and mRNA maturation were long considered co-occurring but separately regulated events of gene control. In the past decade, gene promoters, the platforms of transcription initiation, have been assigned additional functions such as the regulation of splicing and 3' end processing. In a recent study, Oktaba and Zhang and al. reveal that neural 3' UTR extension is dependent on promoter sequences. In Drosophila neurons, promoter regions of a subset of genes recruit the RNA-binding protein ELAV, which is required for subsequent ELAV-mediated alternative polyadenylation. Intriguingly, RNA Polymerase II pausing at promoters seems to facilitate ELAV recruitment. How transcription initiation and alternative polyadenylation, processes separated by an entire gene length, are functionally linked, remains unsolved. In this article, I summarize recent findings and discuss possible mechanisms.
authors.affiliation: a Division of Genetics, Genomics, and Development; Department of Molecular and Cell Biology; Center for Integrative Genomics; University of California ; Berkeley , CA USA.
authors.forename: Valérie
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Hilgers
mesh_terms: D020413:3' Untranslated Regions; D000818:Animals; D051959:ELAV Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D006801:Humans; D009474:Neurons / Q000378:metabolism; D011061:Poly A; D026723:Polyadenylation; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D012319:RNA Polymerase II / Q000378:metabolism; D061805:Transcription Elongation, Genetic; D061785:Transcription Initiation, Genetic
chemical_list: D020413:3' Untranslated Regions; D051959:ELAV Proteins; D011061:Poly A; D012319:RNA Polymerase II
keywords: 3′ UTR extension; ELAV; alternative polyadenylation; cleavage and polyadenylation; drosophila; nervous system; pol II pausing; promoter; transcription initiation