{"id":3295,"date":"2015-01-27T15:52:10","date_gmt":"2015-01-27T14:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.embl.de\/?p=3295"},"modified":"2024-11-29T16:55:10","modified_gmt":"2024-11-29T15:55:10","slug":"1501_complex_assembly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/1501_complex_assembly\/","title":{"rendered":"Come together"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cCurrently, we can get a pretty good picture of what complexes exist in a cell, but what is uncharted territory is how the cell actually assembles these complexes,\u201d says Imre Berger<\/a> from EMBL Grenoble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The complexes Berger is referring to are large cellular machines, built up from many different building blocks. Such machines carry out most of the fundamental tasks in the cell, notably fine-tuning the readout of our genes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A case in point is a complex Berger has been studying for a number of years: TFIID (pronounced tee-eff-two-dee). \u201cVirtually all protein-coding genes in human cells are controlled by TFIID \u2013 it is a central regulator of human gene transcription, and we still do not really know how this essential complex functions,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to techniques previously developed in the Berger lab, the EMBL scientists were able to create a probe to look for one particular piece of TFIID, called TAF2, inside cells. Working with Lazlo Tora\u2019s lab at IGBMC in Strasbourg, they found that TAF2 links up to two other building blocks \u2013 TAF8 and TAF10 \u2013 in the cytoplasm, forming a stable module which then travels into the nucleus to bind with the \u2018core\u2019 of TFIID \u2013 whose structure Berger\u2019s lab revealed in 2013<\/a> \u2013 to form the complete complex. What\u2019s more, they discovered that this module has<\/em> to form in order for the three building blocks to even make it into the nucleus: when the researchers genetically engineered cells to produce no TAF8, TAF2 and TAF10 became \u2018trapped\u2019 in the cytoplasm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the first time that scientists have been able to show through experiments that TFIID isn\u2019t built in a single step, with all its different pieces coming together at once in the nucleus, but rather that it is assembled from pre-formed modules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I feel super-excited because it\u2019s a new, original angle which one can experimentally address<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The findings support the idea that answering the question of how the cell goes about building a complex can help to explain how it works. The TAF2-TAF8-TAF10 module could play a role of its own, before it is even \u2018hooked up\u2019 to the TFIID core. In some tissues \u2013 like the ovaries and sperm cells \u2013 TFIID is missing certain building blocks, and there is at least one other complex \u2013 SAGA \u2013 which uses some of the same building blocks as TFIID. So by choosing which modules to include, or which complex to allocate a module to, the cell could be controlling which genes are acted upon at a given time \u2013 for example, to turn on specific genes needed to produce and maintain a sperm cell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Berger and colleagues would now like to look at other pieces of TFIID, to see if and where they also assemble into \u2018stand-alone\u2019 modules, and investigate at what stages different modules are built and brought together. In the longer run, they\u2019d also like to compare the different tissue-specific versions of TFIID, and study how a cell \u2018decides\u2019 whether to use available building blocks to produce TFIID or SAGA and how this affects gene activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI feel super-excited about this, because it\u2019s a new, original angle which one can experimentally address,\u201d Berger says, \u201cand we are in a particularly privileged position to do so, because we can make all these pieces with the quality you need to generate really specific probes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First experimental proof that a key cellular machine forms by uniting pre-assembled modules.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":3297,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17591],"tags":[40,37,69,35],"embl_taxonomy":[],"class_list":["post-3295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science","category-science-technology","tag-gene-regulation","tag-grenoble","tag-methods","tag-structural-biology"],"acf":{"article_intro":"

Thanks to a technique developed by their lab a few years ago, scientists at EMBL Grenoble have the first experimental proof that a key cellular machine forms by uniting pre-assembled modules.<\/p>\n","related_links":[{"link_description":"Further details in the IGBMC press release","link_url":"http:\/\/www.igbmc.fr\/society\/actualite\/167\/"},{"link_description":"The Berger lab's technique was instrumental in this study of the flu virus","link_url":"http:\/\/news.embl.de\/science\/1411_flu\/"},{"link_description":"Previous work by Berger on TFIID","link_url":"http:\/\/www.embl.de\/aboutus\/communication_outreach\/media_relations\/2013\/130106_Grenoble\/"}],"article_sources":[{"source_description":"

Trowitzsch\u00a0et al. Nature Communications<\/em>, 14 January 2015 DOI:\u00a010.1038\/ncomms7011<\/p>\n","source_link_url":"http:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1038\/ncomms7011"}],"vf_locked":false,"featured":false,"color":"#007B53"},"embl_taxonomy_terms":[],"yoast_head":"\nCome together | EMBL<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"First experimental proof that the key cellular machine TFIID forms by uniting pre-assembled modules.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/1501_complex_assembly\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Come together | EMBL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"First experimental proof that the key cellular machine TFIID forms by uniting pre-assembled modules.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/1501_complex_assembly\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"EMBL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/embl.org\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-01-27T14:52:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-11-29T15:55:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/1501_complex_assembly_1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"620\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"465\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sonia Furtado Neves\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Aur_ora\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@embl\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sonia Furtado Neves\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/1501_complex_assembly\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/1501_complex_assembly\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sonia Furtado Neves\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/d926199a955624b44dda296f396c5e68\"},\"headline\":\"Come together\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-01-27T14:52:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-11-29T15:55:10+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/1501_complex_assembly\/\"},\"wordCount\":561,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/1501_complex_assembly\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/1501_complex_assembly_1.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"gene regulation\",\"grenoble\",\"methods\",\"structural biology\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Science\",\"Science & Technology\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/1501_complex_assembly\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/1501_complex_assembly\/\",\"name\":\"Come together | EMBL\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/1501_complex_assembly\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/1501_complex_assembly\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/1501_complex_assembly_1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-01-27T14:52:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-11-29T15:55:10+00:00\",\"description\":\"First experimental proof that the key cellular machine TFIID forms by uniting pre-assembled modules.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/1501_complex_assembly\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/1501_complex_assembly\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/1501_complex_assembly_1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/1501_complex_assembly_1.jpg\",\"width\":620,\"height\":465,\"caption\":\"Building blocks TAF8 (blue), TAF10 (green) and TAF2 (not shown) form a module in the cytoplasm before entering the nucleus to form TFIID. 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