Promoter activity is a term that encompasses several meanings around the process of gene expression from regulatory sequences —promoters[2] and enhancers.[3] Gene expression has been commonly characterized as a measure of how much, how fast, when and where this process happens.[4] Promoters and enhancers are required for controlling where and when a specific gene is transcribed.[3]
Traditionally the measure of gene products (i.e. mRNA, proteins, etc.) has been the major approach of measure promoter activity. However, this method confront with two issues: the stochastic nature of the gene expression[5] and the lack of mechanistic interpretation of the thermodynamical process involved in the promoter activation.[4]
The actual developments in metabolomics product of developments of next-generation sequencing technologies and molecular structural analysis have enabled the development of more accurate models of the process of promoter activation (e.g. the sigma structure of the polymerase holoenzyme domains[6]) and a better understanding of the complexities of the regulatory factors involved.
^Shea, M.; Akers, G. (1985). "The 0R Control System of Bacteriophage Lambda A Physical-Chemical Model for Gene Regulation". Journal of Molecular Biology. 181 (2): 211–230. doi:10.1016/0022-2836(85)90086-5. PMID3157005.
^Borukhov, S.; Nudlery, E (2003). "RNA polymerase holoenzyme: structure, function and biological implications". Current Opinion in Microbiology. 6 (2): 93–100. doi:10.1016/s1369-5274(03)00036-5. PMID12732296.