Michael Nagel

Mechanisms of transcription re-initiation

Transcription reinitiation occurs following a pioneering round of transcription but remains poorly understood. Reinitiation events produce most RNA transcripts and are essential for robust biological responses.  Reinitiation may occur through mechanisms distinct from "first-round" transcription initiation.  A reinitiation scaffold, discovered in S. cerevisiae by the Steve Hahn lab, consists of a set of general transcription factors that remain promoter-associated following the first round of transcription; this scaffold may similarly operate at human genes, to facilitate transcription re-initiation.  My project implements biochemical and cell-based methods to characterize the molecular mechanisms that control transcription re-initiation in human cells. 

Publications

Nagel, M; Taatjes, DJ. Regulation of RNA polymerase II transcription through re-initiation and bursting. Mol Cell 2025, 85: 1907-1919.

Luyties, O; Sanford, L; Rodino, J; Nagel, M; Jones, T; Rimel, JK; Ebmeier, CC; Palacio, M; Shelby, GS; Cozzolino, K; Brennan, F; Hartzog, A; Saucedo, MB; Watts, LP; Spencer, S; Kugel, JF; Dowell, RD; Taatjes DJ. Multi-omics and biochemical reconstitution reveal CDK7-dependent mechanisms controlling RNA polymerase II function at gene 5'- and 3'-ends. Cell Rep 2025, 44: 115904. 

Bassett, J; Rimel, JK; Basu, S; Basnet, P; Luo, J; Engel, KL; Nagel, MT; Woyciehowsky, A; Ebmeier, CC; Kaplan, CD; Taatjes, DJ; Ranish, JA. Systematic mutagenesis of TFIIH subunit p52/Tfb2 identifies residues required for XPB/Ssl2 subunit function and genetic interactions with TFB6. J Biol Chem 2022, 298: 102433.  

Zhou, W., E. Ramos, X. Zhu, P. M. Fisher, M. E. Kidane, B. H. Vanderloop, C. D. Thomas, J. Yan, U. Singha, M. Chaudhuri, M. T. Nagel, and W. D. Nes. Steroidal antibiotics are antimetabolites of Acanthamoeba steroidogenesis with phylogenetic implications. J Lipid Res 2019, 60: 981–994.