Elongator: An Ancestral Complex Driving Transcription and Migration through Protein Acetylation

Figure 2

Two acetylation-dependent functions of Elongator. In the nucleus, Elongator-mediated acetylation of Histone H3 contributes to transcriptional elongation. Thereby, it interacts with processive RNAPII, which is hyperphosphorylated at its C-terminal domain (CTD). Although this function of Elongator is conserved from yeast to man, the subset of genes that underly this kind of regulation have diverged during evolution. In the cytosol, Elongator acetylates the α-Tubulin subunit of microtubules. This acetylation event contributes to the trafficking of cargo along microtubules and cell migration. Please note that acetylation of α-Tubulin occurs in the lumen of microtubule, but for reasons of illustration, it has been depicted on outside here.