Stepwise mechanism for transcription fidelity.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Transcription is the first step of gene expression and is characterized by a high fidelity of RNA synthesis. During transcription, the RNA polymerase active centre discriminates against not just non-complementary ribo NTP substrates but also against complementary 2'- and 3'-deoxy NTPs. A flexible domain of the RNA polymerase active centre, the Trigger Loop, was shown to play an important role in this process, but the mechanisms of this participation remained elusive.

Results

Here we show that transcription fidelity is achieved through a multi-step process. The initial binding in the active centre is the major discrimination step for some non-complementary substrates, although for the rest of misincorporation events discrimination at this step is very poor. During

SUBMITTER: Yuzenkova Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2874521 | biostudies-literature | 2010 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature