The recruitment model for gene activation stipulates that an activator works by bringing the transcriptional machinery to the DNA. Recent experiments in bacteria and yeast indicate that many genes can be activated by this mechanism. These findings have implications for our understanding of the nature of activating regions and their targets, and for the role of histones in gene regulation.

Transcriptional activation by recruitment

https://userpages.umbc.edu/~wolf/biol434/busbyebrightRev.1999.pdf

Transcription activation by catabolite activator protein (CAP).

https://www.cell.com/cell/pdf/0092-8674(94)90063-9.pdf

Promoter structure, promoter recognition, and transcription activation in prokaryotes

https://www.theorie.physik.uni-muenchen.de/lsfrey/publications/articles/Bintu_CurrOpinGenDev_2005b.pdf

Transcriptional regulation by the numbers: applications.

Catabolite gene activator protein (CAP)-dependent promoters can be grouped into three classes, based on the requirement for transcription activation and the position of the DNA site for CAP. Class I CAP-dependent promoters require only CAP for transcription activation and have the DNA site for CAP located upstream of the DNA site for RNA polymerase. Amino acids 156 to 162 of the promoter-proximal subunit of CAP are essential for transcription activation at Class I CAP-dependent promoters, but are not essential for DNA binding, and are not essential for DNA bending. In the structure of the CAP-DNA complex, these amino acids are located in a surface loop and form a cluster on the surface of the CAP-DNA complex. Amino acids 261, 265, and 270 of the alpha subunit of RNA polymerase are essential for response to transcription activation by CAP at Class I CAP-dependent promoters. Several lines of evidence indicate that transcription activation at Class I CAP-dependent promoters requires a direct protein-protein contact between amino acids 156 to 162 of the promoter-proximal subunit of CAP and a molecule of RNA polymerase bound adjacent to CAP on the same face of the DNA helix. It is a strong possibility that this direct protein-protein contact involves amino acids 261 and 265 of the alpha subunit of RNA polymerase.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1365-2958.1993.tb01626.x

Matthew Lawes

Papers

Transcription activation by the Escherichia coli cyclic AMP receptor protein. Receptors bound in tandem at promoters can interact synergistically.