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Free keywords:
gene transcription; protein–nucleic acid complexes; RNA polymerase; structural biology; transcription regulation
Abstract:
Transcription is the first step in expression of the genetic information in all living cells. The regulation of transcription underlies cell differentiation, organism development, and responses of living systems to changes in the environment. During transcription, the enzyme RNA polymerase uses DNA as a template to synthesize a complementary RNA copy from a gene. Here we summarize the progress in our understanding of the structural basis of eukaryotic gene transcription that has been made ten years after the Nobel Prize in Chemistry given to Roger Kornberg in 2006. The basis for transcription initiation and RNA chain elongation is emerging, but the intricate mechanisms of transcription regulation remain to be elucidated. The field also developed hybrid methods for structural biology that combine several techniques to determine the three-dimensional architecture of large and transient macromolecular assemblies.
