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RNA polymerase-induced remodelling of NusA produces a pause enhancement complex.

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posted on 2025-05-10, 11:48 authored by Cong Ma, Mehdi Mobli, Xiao Yang, Andrew KellerAndrew Keller, Glenn F. King, Peter J. Lewis
Pausing during transcription elongation is a fundamental activity in all kingdoms of life. In bacteria, the essential protein NusA modulates transcriptional pausing, but its mechanism of action has remained enigmatic. By combining structural and functional studies we show that a helical rearrangement induced in NusA upon interaction with RNA polymerase is the key to its modulatory function. This conformational change leads to an allosteric re-positioning of conserved basic residues that could enable their interaction with an RNA pause hairpin that forms in the exit channel of the polymerase. This weak interaction would stabilize the paused complex and increases the duration of the transcriptional pause. Allosteric spatial re-positioning of regulatory elements may represent a general approach used across all taxa for modulation of transcription and protein-RNA interactions.

History

Journal title

Nucleic Acids Research

Volume

43

Issue

5

Pagination

2829-2840

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Language

  • en, English

College/Research Centre

Faculty of Science and Information Technology

School

School of Environmental and Life Sciences

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