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Comment
. 2016 May 19;533(7603):331-2.
doi: 10.1038/nature18437. Epub 2016 May 11.

Structural biology: Snapshots of transcription initiation

Steven Hahn  1 , Stephen Buratowski  2
Affiliations
Comment

Structural biology: Snapshots of transcription initiation

Steven Hahn et al. Nature. .

Abstract

The enzyme RNA polymerase II, along with several transcription factors, initiates DNA transcription. Analyses reveal the structures involved in this process in human and yeast cells at high-resolution.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Preparation for transcription
He et al. (1) and Plashka et al. (2) solved structures of the enzyme RNA polymerase II (Pol II) in complex with transcription factors (including TFIIB, TFIIE and TFIIF) and DNA for humans and yeast. They solved closed and open complexes, which form in the lead up to transcription initiation. a, The human closed complex reveals the trajectory of double-stranded DNA across a cleft in Pol II. DNA is enclosed by TFIIE and a subunit of TFIIF. Arrows show the direction in which DNA is moved by a translocase enzyme. A flexible ‘B-linker’ region of TFIIB is disordered in this state. b, In the open complex, about 12 bases of DNA have been threaded into active site of Pol II, leading to formation of a single-stranded bubble from which the messenger RNA (blue strand) will be transcribed. Single-stranded DNA is stabilized by interactions with TFIIB. For simplicity, several transcription factors have been removed from this schematic.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment on

References

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