Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Fraser, Alec
• Sokolova, Maria L
• Drobysheva, Arina V
• Gordeeva, Julia V
• Borukhov, Sergei
• Jumper, John
• Severinov, Konstantin V
• Leiman, Petr G

Titel

Structural basis of template strand deoxyuridine promoter recognition by a viral RNA polymerase

Ist Teil von

• Nature communications, 2022-06, Vol.13 (1), p.3526-18, Article 3526

Ort / Verlag

England: Nature Publishing Group

Erscheinungsjahr

2022

Quelle

MEDLINE

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Recognition of promoters in bacterial RNA polymerases (RNAPs) is controlled by sigma subunits. The key sequence motif recognized by the sigma, the -10 promoter element, is located in the non-template strand of the double-stranded DNA molecule ~10 nucleotides upstream of the transcription start site. Here, we explain the mechanism by which the phage AR9 non-virion RNAP (nvRNAP), a bacterial RNAP homolog, recognizes the -10 element of its deoxyuridine-containing promoter in the template strand. The AR9 sigma-like subunit, the nvRNAP enzyme core, and the template strand together form two nucleotide base-accepting pockets whose shapes dictate the requirement for the conserved deoxyuridines. A single amino acid substitution in the AR9 sigma-like subunit allows one of these pockets to accept a thymine thus expanding the promoter consensus. Our work demonstrates the extent to which viruses can evolve host-derived multisubunit enzymes to make transcription of their own genes independent of the host.