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Gene transcription
RNA polymerase
Elongation complex structure
Abstract:
For transcription elongation, all cellular RNA polymerases form a stable elongation complex (EC) with the
DNA template and the RNA transcript. Since the millennium, a wealth of structural information and complementary
functional studies provided a detailed three-dimensional picture of the EC and many of its functional
states. Here we summarize these studies that elucidated EC structure and maintenance, nucleotide selection
and addition, translocation, elongation inhibition, pausing and proofreading, backtracking, arrest and
reactivation, processivity, DNA lesion-induced stalling, lesion bypass, and transcriptional mutagenesis. In
the future, additional structural and functional studies of elongation factors that control the EC and their possible
allosteric modes of action should result in a more complete understanding of the dynamic molecular
mechanisms underlying transcription elongation. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: RNA polymerase
II Transcript Elongation.
