Open Access50+ years of eukaryotic transcription: an expanding universe of factors and mechanisms
Author(s) -
Robert G. Roeder
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
nature structural and molecular biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 9.448
H-Index - 270
eISSN - 1545-9993
pISSN - 1545-9985
DOI - 10.1038/s41594-019-0287-x
Subject(s) - computational biology , biology , transcription (linguistics) , genetics , perspective (graphical) , three domain system , gene , evolutionary biology , genome , computer science , philosophy , linguistics , artificial intelligence
The landmark 1969 discovery of nuclear RNA polymerases I, II and III in diverse eukaryotes represented a major turning point in the field that, with subsequent elucidation of the distinct structures and functions of these enzymes, catalyzed an avalanche of further studies. In this Review, written from a personal and historical perspective, I highlight foundational biochemical studies that led to the discovery of an expanding universe of the components of the transcriptional and regulatory machineries, and a parallel complexity in gene-specific mechanisms that continue to be explored to the present day.