Opinion - Regulatory diversity among metazoan co-activator complexes

Transcription is a stepwise process that involves many specialized proteins and protein complexes, all of which must work together to express a given gene in a spatially and temporally regulated manner. An integral step in this regulatory process is carried out by large, multisubunit co-activator complexes, which have diverse roles in transcriptional control. Their diversity and large size allows for many potential regulatory inputs, but how is the versatility and specificity of these co-activator complexes determined?