Study in Nature: functional characterization of transcription factors and cofactors

The expression of genes is tightly controlled by enhancers of which there are hundreds of thousands in the human genome. Enhancer function in turn is regulated by combinations of transcription factors and cofactors. The interplay of these regulatory protein factors is of vital importance, but exactly how they cooperate or are able to replace each other remains unclear.
    
In a study published online in Nature this week, the team of Alexander Stark at the IMP was able to assess the potential regulatory contributions of transcription factors and cofactors with enhancer complementation assays. This systematic functional characterization will advance our understanding of combinatorial enhancer control and gene regulation.

Original Publication: Stampfel et al. Transcriptional regulators form diverse groups with context-dependent regulatory functions.