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Updated: Jul 8, 2026

High-throughput Purification of Affinity-tagged Recombinant Proteins
Published on: August 26, 2012
Structure of an archaeal RNA polymerase
Anselm G Kusser1, Michela G Bertero, Souad Naji
1Gene Center Munich and Center for integrated Protein Science CiPS(M), Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Feodor-Lynen-Str. 25, 81377 Munich, Germany.
Abstract:
Related multisubunit RNA polymerases (RNAPs) carry out gene transcription in all kingdoms of life. Since structural information is limited to bacterial and eukaryotic RNAPs, we determined the cryo-electron microscopic structure of the RNAP from the thermophilic archaeon Pyrococcus furiosus at 13 A resolution. Comparison with eukaryotic RNAP II reveals a conserved architecture, no homologues for subunits Rpb8 and Rpb9, and significant deviation in the polymerase foot, jaws, pore, and protrusion. The structural organization of the archaeal RNA polymerase serves as a reference for future structure-function analysis of the transcription mechanism and allows for evolutionary comparisons.
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