Controlling transcription from within transcribed regions in flowering plants

Abstract

While transcription regulation principles in yeast and animals are believed to operate similarly in plants, the long evolutionary divergence between plants and animals, coupled with their independent evolution of multicellularity, suggests distinct transcription-regulatory mechanisms in plants. Indeed, we've found that in flowering plants, transcription-enhancing sequences near the transcription start site (TSS) are position-dependent, unlike animal enhancers that function regardless of position. I will also discuss a specific sequence motif located downstream of the TSS that tunes the expression of thousands of genes in a tissue-dependent manner.