The effect of a range of RNA polymerase inhibitors on RNA synthesis in higher plant chloroplasts and nuclei

1971 ◽  
Vol 143 (1) ◽  
pp. 269-275 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Bottomley ◽  
D. Spencer ◽  
A.M. Wheeler ◽  
P.R. Whitfeld
1989 ◽  
Vol 258 (1) ◽  
pp. 165-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
L de Mercoyrol ◽  
C Job ◽  
D Job

The rate of formation of a single phosphodiester bond with UTP substrate, U-A primer, poly[d(A-T)] template and wheat-germ RNA polymerase II is greatly depressed in the presence of alpha-amanitin. Half-maximal inhibition occurs at 0.04 microgram/ml, in close agreement with published values for inhibition of productive RNA synthesis with class II RNA polymerases from higher-plant species. However, a sizeable proportion of U-A-U synthesis is resistant to inhibition by excess alpha-amanitin. In the additional presence of ATP, i.e. under experimental conditions permitting RNA chain elongation, the synthesis of poly[r(A-U)] is arrested after the formation of the first phosphodiester bond. The results support the contention that the main enzymic process disrupted by alpha-amanitin is the translocation step of the transcription complex along the DNA template.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Goran Kokic ◽  
Hauke S. Hillen ◽  
Dimitry Tegunov ◽  
Christian Dienemann ◽  
Florian Seitz ◽  
...  

AbstractRemdesivir is the only FDA-approved drug for the treatment of COVID-19 patients. The active form of remdesivir acts as a nucleoside analog and inhibits the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) of coronaviruses including SARS-CoV-2. Remdesivir is incorporated by the RdRp into the growing RNA product and allows for addition of three more nucleotides before RNA synthesis stalls. Here we use synthetic RNA chemistry, biochemistry and cryo-electron microscopy to establish the molecular mechanism of remdesivir-induced RdRp stalling. We show that addition of the fourth nucleotide following remdesivir incorporation into the RNA product is impaired by a barrier to further RNA translocation. This translocation barrier causes retention of the RNA 3ʹ-nucleotide in the substrate-binding site of the RdRp and interferes with entry of the next nucleoside triphosphate, thereby stalling RdRp. In the structure of the remdesivir-stalled state, the 3ʹ-nucleotide of the RNA product is matched and located with the template base in the active center, and this may impair proofreading by the viral 3ʹ-exonuclease. These mechanistic insights should facilitate the quest for improved antivirals that target coronavirus replication.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomáš Kouba ◽  
Tomáš Koval’ ◽  
Petra Sudzinová ◽  
Jiří Pospíšil ◽  
Barbora Brezovská ◽  
...  

AbstractRNA synthesis is central to life, and RNA polymerase (RNAP) depends on accessory factors for recovery from stalled states and adaptation to environmental changes. Here, we investigated the mechanism by which a helicase-like factor HelD recycles RNAP. We report a cryo-EM structure of a complex between the Mycobacterium smegmatis RNAP and HelD. The crescent-shaped HelD simultaneously penetrates deep into two RNAP channels that are responsible for nucleic acids binding and substrate delivery to the active site, thereby locking RNAP in an inactive state. We show that HelD prevents non-specific interactions between RNAP and DNA and dissociates stalled transcription elongation complexes. The liberated RNAP can either stay dormant, sequestered by HelD, or upon HelD release, restart transcription. Our results provide insights into the architecture and regulation of the highly medically-relevant mycobacterial transcription machinery and define HelD as a clearing factor that releases RNAP from nonfunctional complexes with nucleic acids.


2007 ◽  
Vol 370 (2) ◽  
pp. 256-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
William P. Kennedy ◽  
Jamila R. Momand ◽  
Y. Whitney Yin

1970 ◽  
Vol 117 (3) ◽  
pp. 623-631 ◽  
Author(s):  
Volker Neuhoff ◽  
Wolf-Bernhard Schill ◽  
Hans Sternbach

By using micro disc electrophoresis and micro-diffusion techniques, the interaction of pure DNA-dependent RNA polymerase (EC 2.7.7.6) from Escherichia coli with the template, the substrates and the inhibitors heparin and rifampicin was investigated. The following findings were obtained: (1) heparin converts the 24S and 18S particles of the polymerase into the 13S form; (2) heparin inhibits RNA synthesis by dissociating the enzyme–template complex; (3) rifampicin does not affect the attachment of heparin to the enzyme; (4) the substrates ATP and UTP are bound by enzyme loaded with rifampicin; (5) rifampicin is bound by an enzyme–template complex to the same extent as by an RNA-synthesizing enzyme–template complex. From this it is concluded that the mechanism of the inhibition of RNA synthesis by rifampicin is radically different from that by heparin. As a working hypothesis to explain the inhibitory mechanism of rifampicin, it is assumed that it becomes very firmly attached to a position close to the synthesizing site and only blocks this when no synthesis is in progress.


2000 ◽  
Vol 74 (24) ◽  
pp. 11671-11680 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. A. M. Osman ◽  
C. L. Hemenway ◽  
K. W. Buck

ABSTRACT A template-dependent RNA polymerase has been used to determine the sequence elements in the 3′ untranslated region of tobacco mosaic virus RNA that are required for promotion of minus-strand RNA synthesis and binding to the RNA polymerase in vitro. Regions which were important for minus-strand synthesis were domain D1, which is equivalent to a tRNA acceptor arm; domain D2, which is similar to a tRNA anticodon arm; an upstream domain, D3; and a central core, C, which connects domains D1, D2, and D3 and determines their relative orientations. Mutational analysis of the 3′-terminal 4 nucleotides of domain D1 indicated the importance of the 3′-terminal CA sequence for minus-strand synthesis, with the sequence CCCA or GGCA giving the highest transcriptional efficiency. Several double-helical regions, but not their sequences, which are essential for forming pseudoknot and/or stem-loop structures in domains D1, D2, and D3 and the central core, C, were shown to be required for high template efficiency. Also important were a bulge sequence in the D2 stem-loop and, to a lesser extent, a loop sequence in a hairpin structure in domain D1. The sequence of the 3′ untranslated region upstream of domain D3 was not required for minus-strand synthesis. Template-RNA polymerase binding competition experiments showed that the highest-affinity RNA polymerase binding element region lay within a region comprising domain D2 and the central core, C, but domains D1 and D3 also bound to the RNA polymerase with lower affinity.


1977 ◽  
Vol 166 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
P Thomas ◽  
P Davies ◽  
K Griffiths

The characteristics of initiation of RNA synthesis and the elongation of RNA chains on rat ventral-prostate chromatin by RNA polymerase B were investigated by two methods. 1. Initiation was carried out under low-salt conditions with three ribonucleoside triphosphates, and elongation was begun in the absence of reinitiation by the addition of the fourth ribonucleoside triphosphate and increasing the salt concentration. 2. Stable initiation complexes were formed by preincubation of enzyme with template at 37 degrees C, elongation was started by the addition of all four ribonucleoside triphosphates and reinitiation or spurious RNA synthesis was prevented by rifamycin AF/013. The latter method gave more reliable results. The dependence of those parameters on the androgenic status of the animal was studied. During the first 24h after castration, elongation was mainly affected, whereas after 72h a smaller number of initiation sites for RNA polymerase B on chromatin was evident. Considerable diurnal variations in the various parameters were observed. Changes in the relative concentrations of the chromatin-associated proteins were also observed after castration. In the rat ventral-prostate gland androgenic steroids may not only influence one stage of the transcriptional process, but may affect many factors involved in the control of gene expression.


Virology ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 228 (1) ◽  
pp. 121
Author(s):  
Jin-Hua Sun ◽  
Scott Adkins ◽  
Greta Faurote ◽  
C.Cheng Kao

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