bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.05.326918; this version posted October 6, 2020. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. Structure of the Mammalian Mediator Haiyan Zhao1.#, Natalie Young1,#, Jens Kalchschmidt2,#, Jenna Lieberman2, Laila El Khattabi3, Rafael Casellas2,4 and Francisco J. Asturias1,* 1Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical School, Aurora CO 80045, USA 2Lymphocyte Nuclear Biology, NIAMS, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA 3Institut Cochin Laboratoire de Cytogénétique Constitutionnelle Pré et Post Natale, 75014 Paris France 4Center for Cancer Research, NCI, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA #,*These authors contributed equally to this work *Correspondence should be addressed to F.J.A. (
[email protected]) 1 bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.05.326918; this version posted October 6, 2020. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. The Mediator complex plays an essential and multi-faceted role in regulation of RNA polymerase II transcription in all eukaryotes. Structural analysis of yeast Mediator has provided an understanding of the conserved core of the complex and its interaction with RNA polymerase II but failed to reveal the structure of the Tail module that contains most subunits targeted by activators and repressors. Here we present a molecular model of mammalian (Mus musculus) Mediator, derived from a 4.0 Å resolution cryo-EM map of the complex.