Direct observation of DNA rotation during transcription by Escherichia coli RNA polymerase

Yoshie Harada (), Osamu Ohara, Akira Takatsuki, Hiroyasu Itoh, Nobuo Shimamoto and Kazuhiko Kinosita
Additional contact information
Yoshie Harada: Faculty of Science and Technology, Keio University
Osamu Ohara: Kazusa DNA Research Institute
Akira Takatsuki: Faculty of Science and Technology, Keio University
Hiroyasu Itoh: CREST (Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology) “Genetic Programming” Team 13
Nobuo Shimamoto: Structural Biology Center, National Institute of Genetics
Kazuhiko Kinosita: Faculty of Science and Technology, Keio University

Nature, 2001, vol. 409, issue 6816, 113-115

Abstract: Abstract Helical filaments driven by linear molecular motors are anticipated to rotate around their axis, but rotation consistent with the helical pitch has not been observed. 14S dynein1 and non-claret disjunctional protein (ncd)2 rotated a microtubule more efficiently than expected for its helical pitch, and myosin rotated an actin filament only poorly3. For DNA-based motors such as RNA polymerase, transcription-induced supercoiling of DNA4 supports the general picture of tracking along the DNA helix5. Here we report direct and real-time optical microscopy measurements of rotation rate that are consistent with high-fidelity tracking. Single RNA polymerase molecules attached to a glass surface rotated DNA for >100 revolutions around the right-handed screw axis of the double helix with a rotary torque of >5 pN nm. This real-time observation of rotation opens the possibility of resolving individual transcription steps.

Date: 2001
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/35051126 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:409:y:2001:i:6816:d:10.1038_35051126

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/35051126

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().