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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2016 Feb 1.
Published in final edited form as: Biochem Cell Biol. 2015 Sep 15;94(1):82–92. doi: 10.1139/bcb-2015-0045

Figure 3. A proposed role of Pol II pausing in regulating transcriptional responses.

Figure 3

A scheme with responses of a paused (A, B) and non-paused gene (C, D) to the same activator. The colors are as in Figure 1. Insets show levels of the mRNA, in each condition. A gene with paused Pol II (A) can be activated while retaining Pol II pausing (B) (Samarakkody et al. 2015). The retention of pausing limits the extent of gene activation (horizontal bar, inset). On a nonpaused gene (C), the same signal can lead to higher-level activation in the absence of the limit imposed by pausing (D). Release of Pol II pausing during activation, changes in pausing status of a gene during differentiation or following exposure to environmental stress can alter the magnitude of its transcriptional response to the same activator.