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Mechanisms of Transcription pp 219–235Cite as

Modeling Large DNA Molecules: Long-Range Interactions and Regulation of Transcription

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Part of the book series: Nucleic Acids and Molecular Biology ((NUCLEIC,volume 11))

Abstract

Initiation of transcription in eukaryotes requires a multitude of transcription factors (TFS) that interact with the transcription complex (TC), with DNA, and among themselves. One important step in the assembly of the active transcription complex at the promoter is the interaction of transcription factors bound to distant enhancer sites with the proteins already present on the promoter. The simultaneous binding of a TF to a DNA binding site and to the TC on the promoter implies that the DNA between TF and promoter must have some higher order structure — in the simplest case, the DNA forms a loop (Fig. 1). The probability that the TF interacts with the TC will then depend on the probability that the two ends of a stretch of DNA meet within a given distance.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Biophysics of Macromolecules (0830), German Cancer Research Center, Im Neuenheimer Feld 280, D-69120, Heidelberg, Germany

    J. Langowski

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  1. J. Langowski
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Max-Planck-Institut für Experimentelle Medizin, Hermann-Rein-Straße 3, 37075, Göttingen, Germany

    Fritz Eckstein

  2. Biochemistry Department, University of Dundee, DD1 4HN, Dundee, UK

    David M. J. Lilley

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© 1997 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Langowski, J. (1997). Modeling Large DNA Molecules: Long-Range Interactions and Regulation of Transcription. In: Eckstein, F., Lilley, D.M.J. (eds) Mechanisms of Transcription. Nucleic Acids and Molecular Biology, vol 11. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-60691-5_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-60691-5_14

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-64509-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-60691-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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