RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 The universally-conserved transcription factor RfaH is recruited to a hairpin structure of the non-template DNA strand
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 264887
DO 10.1101/264887
A1 Philipp K. Zuber
A1 Irina Artsimovitch
A1 Monali NandyMazumdar
A1 Zhaokun Liu
A1 Yuri Nedialkov
A1 Kristian Schweimer
A1 Paul Rösch
A1 Stefan H. Knauer
YR 2018
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/04/26/264887.abstract
AB RfaH, a transcription regulator of the universally conserved NusG/Spt5 family, utilizes a unique mode of recruitment to elongating RNA polymerase to activate virulence genes. RfaH function depends critically on an ops sequence, an exemplar of a consensus pause, in the non-template DNA strand of the transcription bubble. We used structural and functional analyses to elucidate the role of ops in RfaH recruitment. Our results demonstrate that ops induces pausing to facilitate RfaH binding and establishes direct contacts with RfaH. Strikingly, the non-template DNA forms a hairpin in the RfaH: ops complex structure, flipping out a conserved T residue that is specifically recognized by RfaH. Molecular modeling and genetic evidence support the notion that ops hairpin is required for RfaH recruitment. We argue that both the sequence and the structure of the non-template strand are read out by transcription factors, expanding the repertoire of transcriptional regulators in all domains of life.