Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 105, Issue 47, Pages 18159-18164Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0806084105
Keywords
Rho-dependent termination; RNA polymerase; transcriptional pausing; elongation-limited transcription; fast bacterial growth
Categories
Funding
- Deutsche Forschungsgerneinschaft [KL818/1-1, KL818/1-2]
- National Science Foundation [PHY-0822283]
- Center for Theoretical Biological Physics
- [MCB0746581]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
In fast-growing bacteria, ribosomal RNA (rRNA) is required to be transcribed at very high rates to sustain the high cellular demand on ribosome synthesis. This results in dense traffic of RNA polymerases (RNAP). We developed a stochastic model, integrating results of single-molecule and quantitative in vivo studies of Escherichia coli, to evaluate the quantitative effect of pausing, termination, and antitermination (AT) on rRNA transcription. Our calculations reveal that in dense RNAP traffic, spontaneous pausing of RNAP can lead to severe traffic jams, as manifested in the broad distribution of inter-RNAP distances and can be a major factor limiting transcription and hence growth. Our results suggest the suppression of these pauses by the ribosomal AT complex to be essential at fast growth. Moreover, unsuppressed pausing by even a few nonantiterminated RNAPs can already reduce transcription drastically under dense traffic. However, the termination factor Rho can remove the nonantiterminated RNAPs and restore fast transcription. The results thus suggest an intriguing role by Rho to enhance rather than attenuate rRNA transcription.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available