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Updated: Jun 5, 2026

Artificial RNA Polymerase II Elongation Complexes for Dissecting Co-transcriptional RNA Processing Events
Published on: May 13, 2019
Initial transcribed region sequences influence the composition and functional properties of the bacterial elongation
Padraig Deighan1, Chirangini Pukhrambam, Bryce E Nickels
1Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
Abstract:
The bacterial RNA polymerase (RNAP) holoenzyme consists of a catalytic core enzyme (α(2)ββ'ω) in complex with a σ factor that is essential for promoter recognition and transcription initiation. During early elongation, the stability of interactions between σ and the remainder of the transcription complex decreases. Nevertheless, there is no mechanistic requirement for release of σ upon the transition to elongation. Furthermore, σ can remain associated with RNAP during transcription elongation and influence regulatory events that occur during transcription elongation. Here we demonstrate that promoter-like DNA sequence elements within the initial transcribed region that are known to induce early elongation pausing through sequence-specific interactions with σ also function to increase the σ content of downstream elongation complexes. Our findings establish σ-dependent pausing as a mechanism by which initial transcribed region sequences can influence the composition and functional properties of the transcription elongation complex over distances of at least 700 base pairs.
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