P-TEFb stimulates transcription elongation and pre-mRNA splicing through multilateral mechanisms

Promoter-proximal pausing of RNA polymerase II (RNAPII) across the genome has renewed our attention to the early transcriptional events that control the establishment of pausing and the release of RNAPII into a productive transcription elongation. Here, we review our current understanding of the transcriptional cycle by RNAPII with a particular emphasis on the mechanisms that stimulate transcription elongation and cotranscriptional pre-mRNA splicing through an essential transcriptional kinase, the positive transcription elongation factor b (P-TEFb). We illustrate that by targeting a limited set of transcription elongation factors and paused RNAPII molecule during a promoter-proximal phase of transcription, P-TEFb unleashes an extensive crosstalk between transcription apparatus, RNA processing factors and chromatin for optimal production of mRNA.