TY - JOUR
T1 - NusG/Spt5
T2 - Are there common functions of this ubiquitous transcription elongation factor?
AU - Yakhnin, Alexander V.
AU - Babitzke, Paul
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank Katsuhiko Murakami for critical reading of the manuscript. This work was supported by grant GM098399 from the National Institutes of Health .
PY - 2014/4
Y1 - 2014/4
N2 - NusG/Spt5 is a transcription elongation factor that assists in DNA-templated RNA synthesis by cellular RNA polymerases (RNAP). The modular domain composition of NusG/Spt5 and the way it binds to RNAP are conserved in all three domains of life. NusG/Spt5 closes RNAP around the DNA binding channel, thereby increasing transcription processivity. Recruitment of additional factors to elongating RNAP may be another conserved function of this ubiquitous protein. Eukaryotic Spt5 couples RNA processing and chromatin modification to transcription elongation, whereas bacterial NusG participates in a wide variety of processes, including RNAP pausing and Rho-dependent termination. Elongating RNAP forms a transcriptional bubble in which ~12. bp of the two DNA strands are locally separated. Within this transcription bubble the growing 3'-end of nascent RNA forms an 8-9. bp long hybrid with the template DNA strand. Because of their location in the transcriptional bubble, NusG and its paralog RfaH recognize specific sequences in the nontemplate DNA strand and regulate transcription elongation in response to these signals.
AB - NusG/Spt5 is a transcription elongation factor that assists in DNA-templated RNA synthesis by cellular RNA polymerases (RNAP). The modular domain composition of NusG/Spt5 and the way it binds to RNAP are conserved in all three domains of life. NusG/Spt5 closes RNAP around the DNA binding channel, thereby increasing transcription processivity. Recruitment of additional factors to elongating RNAP may be another conserved function of this ubiquitous protein. Eukaryotic Spt5 couples RNA processing and chromatin modification to transcription elongation, whereas bacterial NusG participates in a wide variety of processes, including RNAP pausing and Rho-dependent termination. Elongating RNAP forms a transcriptional bubble in which ~12. bp of the two DNA strands are locally separated. Within this transcription bubble the growing 3'-end of nascent RNA forms an 8-9. bp long hybrid with the template DNA strand. Because of their location in the transcriptional bubble, NusG and its paralog RfaH recognize specific sequences in the nontemplate DNA strand and regulate transcription elongation in response to these signals.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.mib.2014.02.005
DO - 10.1016/j.mib.2014.02.005
M3 - Review article
C2 - 24632072
AN - SCOPUS:84896000321
SN - 1369-5274
VL - 18
SP - 68
EP - 71
JO - Current Opinion in Microbiology
JF - Current Opinion in Microbiology
IS - 1
ER -
