Nucleotide addition and cleavage by RNA polymerase II: Coordination of two catalytic reactions using a single active site.

ABSTRACT: RNA polymerase II (Pol II) incorporates complementary ribonucleotides into the growing RNA chain one at a time via the nucleotide addition cycle. The nucleotide addition cycle, however, is prone to misincorporation of noncomplementary nucleotides. Thus, to ensure transcriptional fidelity, Pol II backtracks and then cleaves the misincorporated nucleotides. These two reverse reactions, nucleotide addition and cleavage, are catalyzed in the same active site of Pol II, which is different from DNA polymerases or other endonucleases. Recently, substantial progress has been made to understand how Pol II effectively performs its dual role in the same active site. Our review highlights these recent studies and provides an overall model of the catalytic mechanisms of Pol II. In particular, RNA exten

SUBMITTER: Unarta IC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9860460 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature