Dissemin is shutting down on January 1st, 2025

Published in

National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 4(119), 2022

DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2116091119

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DNA-induced spatial entrapment of general transcription machinery can stabilize gene expression in a nondividing cell

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

Significance How differentiated cells such as muscle or nerve maintain their gene expression for prolonged times is currently elusive. Here, using Xenopus oocyte, we have shown that the stability of gene expression in nondividing cells may arise due to the local entrapment of transcriptional machinery to specific gene transcription start sites. We found that within the same nucleus active versus inactive versions of the same gene are spatially segregated through liquid–liquid phase separation. We further observe that silent genes are associated with RNA-Pol-II phosphorylated on Ser5 but fails to attract RNA-Pol-II elongation factors. We propose that liquid–liquid phase separation mediated entrapment of limiting transcriptional machinery factors maintain stable expression of some genes in nondividing cells.