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Structure and mechanism of the RNA polymerase II transcription machinery

Nature Structural & Molecular Biology volume 11, pages 394–403 (2004)Cite this article

Abstract

Advances in structure determination of the bacterial and eukaryotic transcription machinery have led to a marked increase in the understanding of the mechanism of transcription. Models for the specific assembly of the RNA polymerase II transcription machinery at a promoter, conformational changes that occur during initiation of transcription, and the mechanism of initiation are discussed in light of recent developments.

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Figure 1: The pathway of transcription initiation and reinitiation for RNA Pol II.
Figure 2: General transcription factor structures.
Figure 3: The ten-subunit yeast RNA Pol II structure and structure of the elongation complex.
Figure 4: EM structure of the Pol II–mediator complex.
Figure 5: Summary of human general transcription factor protein-DNA crosslinks at a promoter.
Figure 6: The Pol II–TFIIB complex and a model for the structure of the PIC.
Figure 7: EM structure of the Pol II–TFIIF complex.

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Acknowledgements

I thank D. Bushnell, R. Kornberg, and F. Asturias for figures and for communication of results before publication, E. Nogales for figures, B. Moorefield and H.-T. Chen for their comments on the manuscript and H.-T. Chen for discussions and help with figures. This work was supported by a grant from the US National Institutes of Health. S.H. is an associate investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

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    Steven Hahn

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Hahn, S. Structure and mechanism of the RNA polymerase II transcription machinery. Nat Struct Mol Biol 11, 394–403 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nsmb763

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