Summary of the science
Cells follow a central Dogma of molecular biology, which states that the cell's DNA makes RNA and then RNA makes proteins. Transcriptional regulation is the way the cell can control what genes are copied into RNA (in a process called transcription) and therefore, what proteins are made. To do this, they require several components, including so-called transcription factors, proteins that bind to DNA and either activate or deactivate sections of it. Regulating transcription is very important in all cells because it aids the cell in its response to different stimuli, allowing them to acquire different functions and structural components.
About the research
Alexander Stark and his colleagues are interested in dissecting the mechanisms and components involved in transcription regulation. They use an interdisciplinary approach in the model organism Drosophila, to categorise regulation sequences, understand the different functional classes of transcription factors and cofactors and identify how different core promoters are activated depending on the requirements.
About the illustration
This illustration depicts transcriptional regulation occurring in the form of a heat map which is one of the methods they use to depict transcriptional enhancer activity. In this image, the red is one of the elements (e.g. transcription factor) that is interacting with DNA (yellow).