Abstract
Protein clustering is a hallmark of genome regulation in mammalian cells. However, the dynamic molecular processes involved make it difficult to correlate clustering with functional consequences in vivo. We developed a live-cell super-resolution approach to uncover the correlation between mRNA synthesis and the dynamics of RNA Polymerase II (Pol II) clusters at a gene locus. For endogenous β-actin genes in mouse embryonic fibroblasts, we observe that short-lived (~8 s) Pol II clusters correlate with basal mRNA output. During serum stimulation, a stereotyped increase in Pol II cluster lifetime correlates with a proportionate increase in the number of mRNAs synthesized. Our findings suggest that transient clustering of Pol II may constitute a pre-transcriptional regulatory event that predictably modulates nascent mRNA output.
Article and author information
Author details
Reviewing Editor
- Xiaowei Zhuang, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard University, United States
Publication history
- Received: December 8, 2015
- Accepted: May 2, 2016
- Accepted Manuscript published: May 3, 2016 (version 1)
- Version of Record published: June 30, 2016 (version 2)
Copyright
© 2016, Cho et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
Metrics
-
- 8,131
- Page views
-
- 2,514
- Downloads
-
- 90
- Citations
Article citation count generated by polling the highest count across the following sources: Scopus, Crossref, PubMed Central.