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For RNA polymerase, it's one base at a time
Email: Don Monroe - freelance@donmonroe.info News from The Scientist 2005, 6(1):20051114-01
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Scientists have used an optical trap to track the movement of RNA polymerase (RNAP), showing that the enzyme appears to shift along DNA one base pair at a time. Although many experts had expected this conclusion, the report, appearing in this week's Nature, reports the motion at a scale ten times finer than previous work, allowing the researchers to directly resolve the individual steps. This angstrom-scale resolution could shed light on less-understood aspects of gene transcription and its regulation, as well as on the tiny motions of other enzymes as they perform their chemical tasks.
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