1nt9
From Proteopedia
Complete 12-subunit RNA polymerase II
Overview
RNA polymerase (Pol) II consists of a 10-polypeptide catalytic core and the two-subunit Rpb4/7 complex that is required for transcription initiation. Previous structures of the Pol II core revealed a "clamp," which binds the DNA template strand via three "switch regions," and a flexible "linker" to the C-terminal repeat domain (CTD). Here we derived a model of the complete Pol II by fitting structures of the core and Rpb4/7 to a 4.2-A crystallographic electron density map. Rpb4/7 protrudes from the polymerase "upstream face," on which initiation factors assemble for promoter DNA loading. Rpb7 forms a wedge between the clamp and the linker, restricting the clamp to a closed position. The wedge allosterically prevents entry of the promoter DNA duplex into the active center cleft and induces in two switch regions a conformation poised for template-strand binding. Interaction of Rpb4/7 with the linker explains Rpb4-mediated recruitment of the CTD phosphatase to the CTD during Pol II recycling. The core-Rpb7 interaction and some functions of Rpb4/7 are apparently conserved in all eukaryotic and archaeal RNA polymerases but not in the bacterial enzyme.
About this Structure
1NT9 is a Protein complex structure of sequences from Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Full crystallographic information is available from OCA.
Reference
Architecture of initiation-competent 12-subunit RNA polymerase II., Armache KJ, Kettenberger H, Cramer P, Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2003 Jun 10;100(12):6964-8. Epub 2003 May 13. PMID:12746495 Page seeded by OCA on Sat May 3 02:57:03 2008
