PMID:9794753

Citation	Wang, MD, Schnitzer, MJ, Yin, H, Landick, R, Gelles, J and Block, SM (1998) Force and velocity measured for single molecules of RNA polymerase. Science 282:902-7
Abstract	RNA polymerase (RNAP) moves along DNA while carrying out transcription, acting as a molecular motor. Transcriptional velocities for single molecules of Escherichia coli RNAP were measured as progressively larger forces were applied by a feedback-controlled optical trap. The shapes of RNAP force-velocity curves are distinct from those of the motor enzymes myosin or kinesin, and indicate that biochemical steps limiting transcription rates at low loads do not generate movement. Modeling the data suggests that high loads may halt RNAP by promoting a structural change which moves all or part of the enzyme backwards through a comparatively large distance, corresponding to 5 to 10 base pairs. This contrasts with previous models that assumed force acts directly upon a single-base translocation step.
Links	PubMed
Keywords	DNA, Bacterial/metabolism; DNA-Directed RNA Polymerases/chemistry; DNA-Directed RNA Polymerases/metabolism; Escherichia coli/enzymology; Mathematics; Models, Chemical; Molecular Motor Proteins/chemistry; Molecular Motor Proteins/metabolism; RNA, Bacterial/biosynthesis; RNA, Messenger/biosynthesis; Templates, Genetic; Thermodynamics; Transcription, Genetic
edit table

Significance

You can help EcoliWiki by summarizing why this paper is useful

You can help Ecoliwiki by describing the useful materials (strains, plasmids, antibodies, etc) described in this paper.

Add links to pages that link here (e.g. gene, product, method pages)

See Help:References for how to manage references in EcoliWiki.