How Stats interact with the molecular machinery of transcriptional activation

The main purpose of Jak-Stat signal transduction is to adjust the fraction of genes expressed in a genome to environmental cues. The focus of this review is to summarize current knowledge and hypotheses concerning the molecular players and mechanisms that allow Stats to regulate gene expression. We pay particular attention not only to modifications of the Stats themselves, but also to interaction partners with relevance to the remodeling or modification of chromatin or to the recruitment of proteins required for transcriptional initiation and elongation.