Funding Organization(s): German Research Foundation (DFG), National Institutes of Health/National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NIH/NCCIH)
Factor-dependent transcription termination mechanisms are poorly understood. We determined a series of cryo-electron microscopy structures portraying the hexameric adenosine triphosphatase (ATPase) ρ on a pathway to terminating NusA/NusG-modified elongation complexes. An open ρ ring contacts NusA, NusG, and multiple regions of RNA polymerase, trapping and locally unwinding proximal upstream DNA. NusA wedges into the ρ ring, initially sequestering RNA. Upon deflection of distal upstream DNA over the RNA polymerase zinc-binding domain, NusA rotates underneath one capping ρ subunit, which subsequently captures RNA. After detachment of NusG and clamp opening, RNA polymerase loses its grip on the RNA:DNA hybrid and is inactivated. Our structural and functional analyses suggest that ρ, and other termination factors across life, may use analogous strategies to allosterically trap transcription complexes in a moribund state.
Organizational Affiliation:
Laboratory of Structural Biochemistry, Institute of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
Research Center of Electron Microscopy and Core Facility BioSupraMol, Institute of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
Department of Microbiology and Center for RNA Biology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA.
Laboratory of Transcription, Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, Hyderabad, India.
Graduate Studies, Regional Centre for Biotechnology, Faridabad, Haryana, India.
Microscopy and Cryo-Electron Microscopy Service Group, Max-Planck-Institut für Molekulare Genetik, Berlin, Germany.
Institute of Medical Physics und Biophysics, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
Department of Biochemistry, University of Turku, FIN-20014 Turku, Finland.
Department of Microbiology and Center for RNA Biology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA. artsimovitch.1@osu.edu markus.wahl@fu-berlin.de.
Laboratory of Structural Biochemistry, Institute of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany. artsimovitch.1@osu.edu markus.wahl@fu-berlin.de.
Macromolecular Crystallography, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie, Berlin, Germany.
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