Publication Date:
2009-08-01
Description:
RNA polymerase II (Pol II) must overcome the barriers imposed by nucleosomes during transcription elongation. We have developed an optical tweezers assay to follow individual Pol II complexes as they transcribe nucleosomal DNA. Our results indicate that the nucleosome behaves as a fluctuating barrier that locally increases pause density, slows pause recovery, and reduces the apparent pause-free velocity of Pol II. The polymerase, rather than actively separating DNA from histones, functions instead as a ratchet that rectifies nucleosomal fluctuations. We also obtained direct evidence that transcription through a nucleosome involves transfer of the core histones behind the transcribing polymerase via a transient DNA loop. The interplay between polymerase dynamics and nucleosome fluctuations provides a physical basis for the regulation of eukaryotic transcription.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2775800/" target="_blank"〉〈img src="https://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4089621/img/3977009" border="0"〉〈/a〉 〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2775800/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Hodges, Courtney -- Bintu, Lacramioara -- Lubkowska, Lucyna -- Kashlev, Mikhail -- Bustamante, Carlos -- GM32543/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- R37 GM032543/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- R37 GM032543-27/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- Howard Hughes Medical Institute/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2009 Jul 31;325(5940):626-8. doi: 10.1126/science.1172926.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Jason L. Choy Laboratory of Single-Molecule Biophysics and Biophysics Graduate Group, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19644123" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Base Pairing
;
Catalytic Domain
;
DNA/genetics/*metabolism
;
Diffusion
;
Histones/metabolism
;
Models, Genetic
;
Nucleosomes/*metabolism
;
Optical Tweezers
;
RNA Polymerase II/chemistry/*metabolism
;
RNA, Messenger/genetics/metabolism
;
Saccharomyces cerevisiae/metabolism
;
Templates, Genetic
;
*Transcription, Genetic
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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