The disorderly study of ordered recruitment

Activated transcription in eukaryotes requires the aid of numerous co-factors to overcome the physical barriers chromatin poses to activation, bridge the gap between activators and polymerase, and ensure appropriate regulation. S. cerevisiae has long been a model organism for studying the role of co-activators in the steps leading up to gene activation. Detailed studies on the recruitment of these co-activators have been carried out for more than a dozen promoters. Taking a step back to survey these results, however, suggests that there are few generalizations that could be used to guide future studies of uncharacterized promoters.