Enhancer RNA facilitates NELF release from immediate early genes.

Katie Schaukowitch, Jae-Yeol Joo, Xihui Liu, Jonathan K Watts, Carlos Martinez, Tae-Kyung Kim

Molecular cell 2014 Oct 02

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Enhancer RNAs (eRNAs) are a class of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNA) expressed from active enhancers, whose function and action mechanism are yet to be firmly established. Here we show that eRNAs facilitate the transition of paused RNA polymerase II (RNAPII) into productive elongation by acting as a decoy for the negative elongation factor (NELF) complex upon induction of immediate early genes (IEGs) in neurons. eRNAs are synthesized prior to the culmination of target gene transcription and interact with the NELF complex. Knockdown of eRNAs expressed at neuronal enhancers impairs transient release of NELF from the specific target promoters during transcriptional activation, coinciding with a decrease in target mRNA induction. The enhancer-promoter interaction was unaffected by eRNA knockdown. Instead, chromatin looping might enable eRNAs to act locally at a specific promoter. Our findings highlight the spatiotemporally regulated action mechanism of eRNAs during early transcriptional elongation. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Citation

Katie Schaukowitch, Jae-Yeol Joo, Xihui Liu, Jonathan K Watts, Carlos Martinez, Tae-Kyung Kim. Enhancer RNA facilitates NELF release from immediate early genes. Molecular cell. 2014 Oct 02;56(1):29-42