Abstract: The textbook illustration of a gene depicts a linear structure, with flanking regulatory sequences?a promoter on the left and a terminator on the right, to start and stop transcription, respectively. However, recent analyses of chromatin architecture have revealed that the promoter and terminator elements are not necessarily separate in three-dimensional space, but can be juxtaposed to form ?gene loops? (1, 2). Gene loops are not static structures; they form transiently in a transcription-dependent manner. But what function do they serve? On page 671 of this issue, Tan-Wong et al. report that gene loops restrict divergent transcription from inherently bidirectional promoters, repressing the synthesis of noncoding RNA (3).