Final answer:
Transcription factors must first bind to the TATA box and recruit RNA polymerase to the promoter region to increase transcription. Enhancer regions can also augment transcription. They can either increase or prevent transcription.
Step-by-step explanation:
To start transcription, general transcription factors, such as TFIID, TFIIB, and others, must first bind to the TATA box and recruit RNA polymerase to that location. Additional transcription factors may also bind to other regulatory elements at the promoter to increase or prevent transcription. In addition to the promoter sequences, enhancer regions help augment transcription. Enhancers can be upstream, downstream, within a gene itself, or on other chromosomes. Specific transcription factors bound to enhancer regions may either increase or prevent transcription.