Barik S, Ghosh B, Whalen W, Lazinski D, Das A. An antitermination protein engages the elongating transcription apparatus at a promoter-proximal recognition site.
Cell 1987;
50:885-99. [PMID:
3040263 DOI:
10.1016/0092-8674(87)90515-0]
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Abstract
As a transcriptional activator, the N protein of phage lambda acts to suppress transcription termination by recognizing a promoter-proximal site, nut, which is separated from the terminators by thousands of base pairs. We demonstrate here that N interacts with the elongating RNA polymerase in transit through the boxB domain of nut. This interaction leads to the stable association of N as an integral component of the transcription apparatus. During subsequent elongation, N translocates along with polymerase through several defined terminators positioned beyond nut. Therefore, by being an operon-specific subunit of the transcription apparatus, N presumably prevents the interaction of polymerase with termination signals.
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