A Hot-Swappable Genetic Switch: Building an inducible and trackable functional assay for the essential gene MEDIATOR 21.

Essential genes, estimated at approximately 20% of the genome, are broadly expressed and required for reproductive success. They are difficult to study, as interfering with their function leads to premature death. Transcription is one of the essential functions of life, and the multi-protein Mediator complex coordinates the regulation of gene expression at nearly every eukaryotic promoter.

A function of TPL/TBL1-type corepressors is to nucleate the assembly of the preinitiation complex.

The plant corepressor TPL is recruited to diverse chromatin contexts, yet its mechanism of repression remains unclear. Previously, we leveraged the fact that TPL retains its function in a synthetic transcriptional circuit in the yeast model Saccharomyces cerevisiae to localize repressive function to two distinct domains. Here, we employed two unbiased whole-genome approaches to map the physical and genetic interactions of TPL at a repressed locus.

A conserved function of corepressors is to nucleate assembly of the transcriptional preinitiation complex.

The plant corepressor TPL is recruited to diverse chromatin contexts, yet its mechanism of repression remains unclear. Previously, we have leveraged the fact that TPL retains its function in a synthetic transcriptional circuit in the yeast model to localize repressive function to two distinct domains. Here, we employed two unbiased whole genome approaches to map the physical and genetic interactions of TPL at a repressed locus.