Dissecting the stochastic transcription initiation process in live Escherichia coli.

ABSTRACT: We investigate the hypothesis that, in Escherichia coli, while the concentration of RNA polymerases differs in different growth conditions, the fraction of RNA polymerases free for transcription remains approximately constant within a certain range of these conditions. After establishing this, we apply a standard model-fitting procedure to fully characterize the in vivo kinetics of the rate-limiting steps in transcription initiation of the Plac/ara-1 promoter from distributions of intervals between transcription events in cells with different RNA polymerase concentrations. We find that, under full induction, the closed complex lasts ∼788 s while subsequent steps last ∼193 s, on average. We then establish that the closed complex formation usually occurs multiple times prior to each successf

SUBMITTER: Lloyd-Price J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4909308 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature