Promoter-proximal CCCTC-factor binding is associated with an increase in the transcriptional pausing index

Abstract

Motivation: It has been known for more than 2 decades that after RNA polymerase II (RNAPII) initiates transcription, it can enter into a paused or stalled state immediately downstream of the transcription start site before productive elongation. Recent advances in high-throughput genomic technologies facilitated the discovery that RNAPII pausing at promoters is a widespread physiologically regulated phenomenon. The molecular underpinnings of pausing are incompletely understood. The CCCTC-factor (CTCF) is a ubiquitous nuclear factor that has diverse regulatory functions, including a recently discovered role in promoting RNAPII pausing at splice sites.Results: In this study, we analyzed CTCF binding sites and nascent transcriptomic data from three different cell types, and found that promoter-proximal CTCF binding is significantly associated with RNAPII pausing.Contact: Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. © 2012 The Author.