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Structural biology

New beginnings for transcription

Nature volume 462, pages 292–293 (2009)Cite this article

A structure for the enzyme RNA polymerase II in combination with the transcription factor TFIIB changes our view of how the polymerase and its helper proteins initiate transcription.

In all organisms, the initiation of transcription — RNA synthesis from a DNA template — is a collaborative process involving cooperation between RNA polymerase (Pol), the enzyme that transcribes RNA from DNA, and general transcription factors that assist initiation in various ways. Tremendous progress has been made over the past 20 years in understanding how transcription in eukaryotes (plants and animals) begins, including the elucidation of structures of several transcription initiation factors and of Pol II — one of the eukaryotic polymerases1,2,3. What's been missing, however, is the structure of Pol II combined with general factors and its DNA substrate. This is partly because this initiation complex is held together by many weak protein–protein and protein–DNA interactions, and it is difficult to assemble it in large enough quantities for structural analysis.

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Figure 1: Structures of RNA polymerase II in combination with the general transcription factor TFIIB.

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  1. Steven Hahn is at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington 98109, USA. shahn@fhcrc.org ,

    Steven Hahn

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Hahn, S. New beginnings for transcription. Nature 462, 292–293 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/462292a

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