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A lesson in sharing?

Nature volume 396, pages 410–411 (1998)Cite this article

The TATA-binding protein (TBP) is pivotal to transcription — it recognizes a specific DNA sequence, the TATA element, found in the control region of many genes, and is required for other proteins to assemble there and initiate transcription. A topic of much discussion has been to what degree the TAFs (TBP-associated factors) are required for TBP to do this. Initially TAFs were thought to be essential, but this idea was challenged by the observation that, in yeast, some TAFs are not generally required for transcription1,2. Moreover, a subset of the TAFs also contribute to the activities of other transcriptional regulatory complexes3,4,5,6. Now, four papers in Molecular Cell7,8,9,10 and one report in Cell11 fuel this debate by showing that a sub-group of TAF proteins, histone-like TAFs, may have a much broader role in gene expression.

Considerable work over the past decade led to the conclusion that TFIID — an evolutionarily conserved complex consisting of TBP and eight to twelve associated TAFs — rather than TBP alone is required for activation of protein-coding genes. Consistent with this, almost all TAFs were found to be essential for yeast viability. However, this model seemed all but destroyed when experiments to inactivate or deplete certain TAFs in yeast cells did not lead to the expected broad loss of activated transcription1,2. Moreover, TAF145/130, which was thought to be central to the assembly of TFIID, was found to regulate only a subset of genes, further deflating enthusiasm for a model of general TAF function12.

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Figure 1: Transcriptional complexes bound to an array of nucleosomes.

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  1. the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, 16802-4500, Pennsylvania, USA

    Patrick A. Grant & Jerry L. Workman

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  1. Patrick A. Grant
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Grant, P., Workman, J. A lesson in sharing?. Nature 396, 410–411 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/24723

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