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Query: EC:2.7.7.6 (RNA polymerase)
34,946 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Studies on bacterial RNA polymerases have divided the initiation pathway into three steps, namely (i) promoter binding to form the closed complex; (ii) DNA melting to form an open complex, and (iii) messenger RNA initiation. Potassium permanganate was used to detect DNA melting by mammalian RNA polymerase II in vitro. Closed complexes formed in a rate-limiting step that was stimulated by the activator GAL4-VP16. Adenosine triphosphate was then hydrolyzed to rapidly melt the DNA within the closed complex to form an open complex. Addition of nucleoside triphosphates resulted in the melted bubble moving away from the start site, completing initiation.
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PMID:Polymerase II promoter activation: closed complex formation and ATP-driven start site opening. 131 Mar 61

Chemical and enzymatic probing (footprinting) of the reactivity of the promoter DNA backbone is applied to characterize two binary open complexes RPo1 (-Mg2+) and RPo2 (+Mg2+), formed by Escherichia coli RNA polymerase (E sigma 70) at the lambda PR promoter. We report that HO. detects major differences in backbone reactivity between RPo1 and RPo2 in the open region from -4 to +1 relative to the transcription start site. Deoxyribose sugars at positions -4 to +1 of the t (template) strand react with HO. in RPo2 but are relatively protected in RPo1. Binding of Mg2+ to convert RPo1 to RPo2 therefore increases the reactivity of two negatively charged footprinting agents [MnO4-; Suh, W.-C., Ross, W., & Record, M. T., Jr., (1993) Science 259, 358-361; and Fe(EDTA)2-/HO.] at the start site and is required for binding of the negatively-charged initiating nucleotides to the polymerase and the t strand at the start site. We propose that these effects result from binding of two Mg2+ ions to the catalytic carboxyls in the nucleotide binding sites. Except for the key region on the t strand at the start site, the promoter DNA of both RPo1 and RPo2 is continuously protected from DNase I and hydroxyl radical (HO.) cleavage between the -12 and +25 promoter positions. Protection in the upstream region, extending from -13 to about -70, is periodic, with an 11 base pair periodicity indicative of binding of polymerase to a single face of the DNA helix.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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PMID:HO. and DNase I probing of E sigma 70 RNA polymerase--lambda PR promoter open complexes: Mg2+ binding and its structural consequences at the transcription start site. 749 90

sigma 54 is the promoter recognition subunit of the form of bacterial RNA polymerase that transcribes from promoters with enhancer elements. DNase footprinting experiments show that sigma 54 is attached selectively to the template strand, which must be single-stranded for transcription initiation. sigma 54 remains bound at the promoter after core polymerase begins elongation, in contrast to the well-established sigma 70-holoenzyme transcription cycle. Permanganate footprinting experiments show that the bound sigma 54 and the elongating core RNA polymerase downstream of it are each associated with a single-strand DNA region. Template commitment assays show that the promoter-bound sigma 54 must be reconfigured before reinitiation of transcription can occur. This unexpected pathway raises interesting possibilities for transcriptional regulation, especially with regard to control at the level of reinitiation.
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PMID:A novel bacterial transcription cycle involving sigma 54. 755 83

Footprinting studies with the purine-modifying reagent dimethyl sulfate and with the single-stranded DNA probing reagent potassium permanganate were carried out in isolated mitochondria from rat liver. Dimethyl sulfate footprinting allowed the detection of protein-DNA interactions within the rat analogues of the human binding sites for the transcription termination factor mTERF and for the transcription activating factor mt-TFA. Although mTERF contacts were localized only at the boundary between the 16S rRNA/tRNA(Leu)UUR genes, multiple mtTFA contacts were detected. Contact sites were located in the light and the heavy strand promoters and, in agreement with in vitro footprinting data on human mitochondria, between the conserved sequence blocks (CSB) 1 and 2 and inside CSB-1. Potassium permanganate footprinting allowed detection of a 25-base pair region entirely contained in CSB-1 in which both strands were permanganate-reactive. No permanganate reactivity was associated with the other regions of the D-loop, including CSB-2 and -3, and with the mTERF contact site. We hypothesize that the single-stranded DNA at CSB-1 may be due to a profound helix distortion induced by mtTFA binding or be associated with a RNA polymerase pause site. In any case the location in CSB-1 of the 3' end of the most abundant replication primer and of the 5' end of the prominent D-loop DNA suggests that protein-induced DNA conformational changes play an important role in directing the transition from transcription to replication in mammalian mitochondria.
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PMID:Identification by in Organello footprinting of protein contact sites and of single-stranded DNA sequences in the regulatory region of rat mitochondrial DNA. Protein binding sites and single-stranded DNA regions in isolated rat liver mitochondria. 755 32

The role of nucleotides in activated RNA polymerase II transcription was studied. Permanganate footprinting confirmed that there is a strict nucleotide requirement for forming open promoter complexes that cannot be overcome by the addition of a dinucleotide primer corresponding to the start site sequence. However, higher concentrations of other nucleoside triphosphates can substitute for ATP in catalyzing open complex formation. Opening catalyzed by these nucleotides is inhibited by the ATP analogue adenosine 5'-O-(thio-triphosphate), suggesting that they may function through cross-binding to the ATP site. The KM for ATP for opening and the involvement of other nucleotides in opening differs from the characteristics reported for TFIIH helicase and C-terminal domain kinase activities. This raises the possibility that opening does not involve these activities. The results alleviate very significantly the considerable current uncertainty concerning the role of ATP in the mammalian mRNA transcription initiation pathway.
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PMID:Nucleotide requirements for activated RNA polymerase II open complex formation in vitro. 783 91

Three synthetic promoters, PS1, PS2 and PS3, which differ in their core promoter elements, were studied in vivo and in vitro. Whereas an increased homology score correlates with higher rates of RNA polymerase binding, it does not correlate with activity in vivo. Permanganate probing in vivo reveals that PS1, which exhibits the lowest homology score, is rate-limited during the early phase of promoter-RNA polymerase interactions. By contrast, PS2 and PS3, with higher homology scores, are limited at a late step involving an open DNA region spanning from +6 to +12, indicating a stalling of RNA polymerase. These complexes disappear upon treatment of cells with rifampicin and are replaced by open complexes covering the start site. Because initiated complexes are selectively insensitive to rifampicin action, this confirms that RNA polymerase stalled at +6 to +12 has initiated RNA synthesis. Kinetic studies indicate that the enzyme is released slowly from this position and that this slow release appears to be responsible for the low promoter activity. For PS3, which exhibits the highest homology score and which binds RNA polymerase most efficiently, the release of the stalled complex is particularly slow. PS3 is found to be the weakest of the three promoters in vivo. These results support models in which promoter activity can be determined by various rate limiting steps, including those following the formation of open complexes and even the initiation of RNA synthesis.
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PMID:Stalling of Escherichia coli RNA polymerase in the +6 to +12 region in vivo is associated with tight binding to consensus promoter elements. 800 61

Phased A-tract sequences were inserted in the upstream region of three synthetic promoters known to encompass different rate-limiting steps within the pathway of RNA polymerase-promoter interaction (Ellinger et al., accompanying paper). Promoter PS1, which is rate-limited in complex formation, was stimulated by A-tracts in vivo. Permanganate probing showed that the stimulation is due to an enhanced ability to compete for limiting RNA polymerase in vivo, leading to the increased formation of open complexes. By contrast, promoters PS2 and PS3, which are rate-limited in steps following open complex formation, were inhibited in vivo by A-tracts. Permanganate probing showed that the inhibition was accompanied by an A-tract-dependent accumulation of stalled initial transcribing complexes. A single A-tract was as effective as three. The phasing of the A-tracts with respect to the core promoter sequence was found to be important for promoter function. The position that caused maximal activation at one promoter caused maximal inhibition at another. These results suggest that the same molecular interaction gives rise to both inhibition and activation. This is likely to be due to facilitated RNA polymerase binding in the presence of A-tracts, which stimulates binding-limited promoters but inhibits promoter function in which polymerase escape and promoter clearance is rate limiting.
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PMID:Context-dependent effects of upstream A-tracts. Stimulation or inhibition of Escherichia coli promoter function. 800 62

An RNA polymerase II activator often contains several regions that contribute to its potency, an organization ostensibly analogous to the modular architecture of promoters and enhancers. The regulatory significance of this parallel organization has not been systematically explored. We considered this problem by examining the activation domain of the Epstein-Barr virus transactivator ZEBRA. We performed our experiments in vitro so that the activator concentrations, stabilities, and affinities for DNA could be monitored. ZEBRA and various amino-terminal deletion derivatives, expressed in and purified from Escherichia coli, were assayed in a HeLa cell nuclear extract for the ability to activate model reporter templates bearing one, three, five, and seven upstream ZEBRA binding sites. Our data show that ZEBRA contains four modules that contribute to its potency in vitro. The modules operate interchangeably with promoter sites to determine the transcriptional response such that the loss of modules can be compensated for by increasing promoter sites. Potassium permanganate footprinting was used to show that transcriptional stimulation is a consequence of the activator's ability to promote preinitiation complex assembly. Kinetic measurements of transcription complex assembly in a reconstituted system indicate that ZEBRA promotes formation of a subcomplex requiring the TFIIA and TFIID fractions, where TFIIA acts as an antirepressor. We propose a model in which the concentration of DNA-bound activation modules in the vicinity of the gene initiates synergistic transcription complex assembly.
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PMID:The ZEBRA activation domain: modular organization and mechanism of action. 841 94

Potassium permanganate (KMnO4) footprinting in the absence and presence of magnesium (Mg2+) at the lambda PR promoter identified two different open complexes with Escherichia coli E sigma 70 RNA polymerase (designated RPo1 and RPo2). The single-stranded region in RPo1 (formed in the absence of Mg2+) was at most 12 bases long, whereas that in RPo2 (formed in the presence of Mg2+) spanned at least 14 bases. Only in RPo2 did the single-stranded region extend to the start point of transcription (+1, +2). These results provide a structural basis for the requirement for uptake of Mg2+ in the formation of RPo2 from RPo1, as deduced from kinetic studies at this promoter.
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PMID:Two open complexes and a requirement for Mg2+ to open the lambda PR transcription start site. 842 2

The KorB protein of broad-host-range plasmid RK2 is a transcriptional repressor involved in the control of genes for plasmid replication, conjugative transfer and stable maintenance. We have purified this protein close to homogeneity from cells harbouring an overexpression vector with the korB gene under the control of the tac promoter. KorB binds to restriction fragments bearing its proposed operator sequence, OB. Its interaction with this palindromic site was confirmed by DNaseI or hydroxyl radical footprinting at two OB sequences from RK2. Comparisons showed that the OB context affects the nature of the footprint. Our evidence suggests that KorB is a tetramer. As such, it may be able to bind two sites simultaneously on the same or on different DNA molecules. Using the korABF promoter, which is subject to KorB repression, we demonstrate by footprinting and restriction protection that KorB and RNA polymerase can bind simultaneously. Permanganate footprinting showed that KorB represses this promoter by preventing isomerization of the RNA polymerase-promoter complex from the closed to open form.
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PMID:Multifunctional repressor KorB can block transcription by preventing isomerization of RNA polymerase-promoter complexes. 846 98


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