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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2022 Feb 1.
Published in final edited form as: Trends Biochem Sci. 2020 Sep 1;46(2):138–153. doi: 10.1016/j.tibs.2020.08.007

Figure 3. Mechanism by which eRNA transcripts regulate target gene expression.

Figure 3.

(A) eRNAs stabilize enhancer-promoter interaction by increasing DNA looping through interaction with the cohesion and Mediator complexes. Knockdown of eRNAs in several studies have shown that eRNAs are essential for the formation and stabilization of enhancer-promoter interaction.

(B) The presence of eRNAs may also promote the localization and binding of transcription factors (TFs) and coregulators (CoRs) to enhancers through a mechanism coined “trapping”, such as the case for the TF YY1.

(C) eRNAs stimulate the acyltransferase activity of CBP, which increases the H3K27ac histone modification enriched at enhancers. eRNAs amplify this the interaction between H3K27ac and BRD4 by not only stimulating the deposition of H3K27ac at enhancers, but also the recruitment of BRD4, a coregulator that interacts with H3K27ac and promotes target gene transcription.

(D) eRNAs facilitate the transition of RNA Pol II at target gene promoter from pause to productive elongation through the binding and release of the NELF-E, a negative elongation factor that prevents RNA Pol II from elongation.