Direct Spectroscopic Study of Reconstituted Transcription Complexes Reveals That Intrinsic Termination Is Driven Primarily by Thermodynamic Destabilization of the Nucleic Acid Framework
Autor: | Kausiki Datta, Peter H. von Hippel |
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Rok vydání: | 2008 |
Předmět: |
DNA
Bacterial Transcription Genetic Base pair Molecular Sequence Data Biology Biochemistry Article Viral Proteins Transcription (biology) Nucleic Acids Intrinsic termination Escherichia coli medicine T7 RNA polymerase Binding site Molecular Biology Polymerase Terminator Regions Genetic Binding Sites Base Sequence Models Genetic Circular Dichroism RNA DNA-Directed RNA Polymerases Cell Biology RNA Bacterial Spectrophotometry Nucleic acid Biophysics biology.protein Nucleic Acid Conformation Thermodynamics medicine.drug |
Zdroj: | Journal of Biological Chemistry. 283:3537-3549 |
ISSN: | 0021-9258 |
DOI: | 10.1074/jbc.m707998200 |
Popis: | Changes in near UV circular dichroism (CD) and fluorescence spectra of site-specifically placed pairs of 2-aminopurine residues have been used to probe the roles of the RNA hairpin and the RNA-DNA hybrid in controlling intrinsic termination of transcription. Functional transcription complexes were assembled directly by mixing preformed nucleic acid scaffolds of defined sequence with T7 RNA polymerase (RNAP). Scaffolds containing RNA hairpins immediately upstream of a GC-rich hybrid formed complexes of reduced stability, whereas the same hairpins adjacent to a hybrid of rU-dA base pairs triggered complex dissociation and transcript release. 2-Aminopurine probes at the upstream ends of the hairpin stems show that the hairpins open on RNAP binding and that stem re-formation begins after one or two RNA bases on the downstream side of the stem have emerged from the RNAP exit tunnel. Hairpins directly adjacent to the RNA-DNA hybrid weaken RNAP binding, decrease elongation efficiency, and disrupt the upstream end of the hybrid as well as interfere with the movement of the template base at the RNAP active site. Probing the edges of the DNA transcription bubble demonstrates that termination hairpins prevent translocation of the RNAP, suggesting that they transiently "lock" the polymerase to the nucleic acid scaffold and, thus, hold the RNA-DNA hybrid "in frame." At intrinsic terminators the weak rU-dA hybrid and the adjacent termination hairpin combine to destabilize the elongation complex sufficiently to permit significant transcript release, whereas hairpin-dependent pausing provides time for the process to go to completion. |
Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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