M. Carlson, GENETICS OF TRANSCRIPTIONAL REGULATION IN YEAST - CONNECTIONS TO THE RNA-POLYMERASE-II CTD, Annual review of cell and developmental biology, 13, 1997, pp. 1-23
Transcriptional regulation is important in all eukaryotic organisms fo
r cell growth, development, and responses to environmental change. Sac
charomyces cerevisiae, or bakers' yeast, has provided a powerful syste
m for genetic analysis of transcriptional regulation, and findings fro
m the study of this model system have proven broadly applicable to hig
her organisms. Transcriptional regulation requires the interactions of
regulatory proteins with various components of the transcription mach
inery. Recently, genetic analysis of a diverse set of transcriptional
regulatory responses has converged with studies of the function of the
RNA polymerase II carboxy-terminal domain (CTD) to reveal regulatory
roles for proteins associated with the CTD. These proteins, designated
Srb/mediator proteins, are broadly involved in both positive and nega
tive regulatory responses in vivo. This review focuses on the connecti
ons between genetic analysis of transcriptional regulation and the fun
ctions of the Srb/mediator proteins associated with the RNA polymerase
II CTD.