<u>S</u>tart, <u>s</u>top, <u>r</u>esume, and <u>p</u>roceed: <u>ZmSSRP1</u> mediates the progression of RNA polymerase II and kernel development in maize

Gene transcription is an essential process carried out by RNA Polymerase II (RNAP II) through a cycle of four 11 key steps.It begins with initiation, followed by a promoter -proximal pausing phase, during which serine 12 residues in the carboxy-terminal domain (CTD) of RNAP II become phosphorylated.Next comes elongation, 13where the full RNA transcript is synthesized, and finally, termination, during which the mRNA is processed 14 and the poly(A) tail is added (Liu et al. 2015).The journey of RNAP II through a gene is anything but easy, 15 and the elongation step, particularly, can be influenced by several factors (Obermeyer et al., 2023). 16Nucleosomes (formed by DNA wrapped around an octamer of histones), for example, can hinder RNAP II To investigate the nature of this interaction in vivo, the authors performed ChIP-seq assays in dek59-1