Science Advances· 2026Q1
Enhancer binding kinetics explain transcription factor hub formation
- 6citations
- Q1SCImago
- 2026year
Short summary
Transcription factor (TF) hub formation and persistence at enhancers scale with the number of TF binding motifs, but these properties do not predict transcriptional bursts.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- TF hub enrichment and persistence at enhancers scale with the number of TF binding motifs.
- Hub properties do not predict transcriptional burst frequency for a given enhancer.
- TF hub formation can be explained by TF-DNA binding kinetics alone.
- TF hubs emerge from enhancer-encoded TF-DNA interactions.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
Transcription factors (TFs) form dynamic, high-concentration clusters, condensates, or hubs, proposed to increase TF binding frequency at target enhancers. However, how enhancer sequence shapes hub properties remains unclear. We developed a live-imaging based framework to quantify the spatiotemporal relationship between TF hubs and actively transcribed genes in live Drosophila embryos. Examining hubs formed by the TF Dorsal across enhancers with defined binding-site composition, we find that hub enrichment and persistence scale with the number of Dorsal binding motifs. However, these hub properties do not predict transcriptional bursts for a given enhancer. Combining quantitative imaging with computational modeling, we show that Dorsal hub formation can be explained by TF–DNA binding kinetics alone. These findings support a model in which TF hubs emerge from enhancer-encoded TF–DNA interactions rather than higher-order regulatory assemblies.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Science Advances, 2026 · DOI ↗
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Field: Molecular Biology
Molecular BiologyBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology