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Bacterial transcription is the process in which a segment of bacterial DNA is copied into a newly synthesized strand of messenger RNA (mRNA) with use of the enzyme RNA polymerase. The process occurs in three main steps: initiation, elongation, and termination; and the result is a strand of mRNA that is complementary to a single strand of DNA.
The enzyme, characterized from the archaeon Pyrococcus furiosus, the Gram-positive bacterium Eubacterium acidaminophilum and the Gram-negative bacterium Campylobacter jejuni, interacts with an extracytoplasmic substrate binding protein and mediates the import of tungstate into the cell for incorporation into tungsten-dependent enzymes.
Electron micrographs of stained cell-free protein synthesis reactions revealed branched assemblies in which strings of ribosomes are linked to a central DNA fibre. [27] DNA isolated from bacterial cells co-sediment with ribosomes, further supporting the conclusion that transcription and translation occur together. [26]
RNA Polymerase II Transcription: the process of transcript elongation facilitated by disassembly of nucleosomes. RNAP from T. aquaticus pictured during elongation. Portions of the enzyme were made transparent so as to make the path of RNA and DNA more clear. The magnesium ion (yellow) is located at the enzyme active site.
Some eukaryotic cells contain an enzyme with reverse transcription activity called telomerase. Telomerase carries an RNA template from which it synthesizes a telomere, a repeating sequence of DNA, to the end of linear chromosomes. It is important because every time a linear chromosome is duplicated, it is shortened.
At about the same time, Sidney Altman, a professor at Yale University, was studying the way tRNA molecules are processed in the cell when he and his colleagues isolated an enzyme called RNase-P, which is responsible for conversion of a precursor tRNA into the active tRNA. Much to their surprise, they found that RNase-P contained RNA in addition ...
This process is called promoter escape, and is another step at which regulatory elements can act to accelerate or slow the transcription process. Similarly, protein and nucleic acid factors can associate with the elongation complex and modulate the rate at which the polymerase moves along the DNA template.
In bacteria, translation initiation occurs as soon as the 5' end of an mRNA is synthesized, and translation and transcription are coupled. This is not possible in eukaryotes because transcription and translation are carried out in separate compartments of the cell (the nucleus and cytoplasm).