Studying transcription initiation by RNA polymerase with diffusion-based single-molecule fluorescence.

ABSTRACT: Over the past decade, fluorescence-based single-molecule studies significantly contributed to characterizing the mechanism of RNA polymerase at different steps in transcription, especially in transcription initiation. Transcription by bacterial DNA-dependent RNA polymerase is a multistep process that uses genomic DNA to synthesize complementary RNA molecules. Transcription initiation is a highly regulated step in E. coli, but it has been challenging to study its mechanism because of its stochasticity and complexity. In this review, we describe how single-molecule approaches have contributed to our understanding of transcription and have uncovered mechanistic details that were not observed in conventional assays because of ensemble averaging.

SUBMITTER: Alhadid Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5477543 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature