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Chung S, Lerner E, Jin Y, Kim S, Alhadid Y, Grimaud LW, Zhang IX, Knobler CM, Gelbart WM, Weiss S. The effect of macromolecular crowding on single-round transcription by Escherichia coli RNA polymerase. Nucleic Acids Res 2019; 47:1440-1450. [PMID: 30590739 PMCID: PMC6379708 DOI: 10.1093/nar/gky1277] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/18/2018] [Revised: 12/01/2018] [Accepted: 12/13/2018] [Indexed: 01/09/2023] Open
Abstract
Previous works have reported significant effects of macromolecular crowding on the structure and behavior of biomolecules. The crowded intracellular environment, in contrast to in vitro buffer solutions, likely imparts similar effects on biomolecules. The enzyme serving as the gatekeeper for the genome, RNA polymerase (RNAP), is among the most regulated enzymes. Although it was previously demonstrated that macromolecular crowding affects association of RNAP to DNA, not much is known about how crowding acts on late initiation and promoter clearance steps, which are considered to be the rate-determining steps for many promoters. Here, we demonstrate that macromolecular crowding enhances the rate of late initiation and promoter clearance using in vitro quenching-based single-molecule kinetics assays. Moreover, the enhancement's dependence on crowder size notably deviates from predictions by the scaled-particle theory, commonly used for description of crowding effects. Our findings shed new light on how enzymatic reactions could be affected by crowded conditions in the cellular milieu.
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Affiliation(s)
- SangYoon Chung
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Eitan Lerner
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- Department of Biological Chemistry, The Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91904, Israel
| | - Yan Jin
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Soohong Kim
- The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA
- Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Yazan Alhadid
- Interdepartmental Program in Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Physiology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Logan Wilson Grimaud
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Irina X Zhang
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- Present address: Irina X. Zhang, Department of Pharmacology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
| | - Charles M Knobler
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - William M Gelbart
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- Interdepartmental Program in Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Physiology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- Molecular Biology Institute (MBI), University of California Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- California NanoSystems Institute, University of California Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- Correspondence may also be addressed to William M. Gelbart. Tel: +1 310 825 2005; Fax: +1 310 206 4038;
| | - Shimon Weiss
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- Interdepartmental Program in Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Physiology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- Molecular Biology Institute (MBI), University of California Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- California NanoSystems Institute, University of California Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- Department of Physiology, University of California Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- Department of Physics, Institute for Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan 52900, Israel
- To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel: +1 310 794 0093; Fax: +1 310 267 4672;
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Lerner E, Cordes T, Ingargiol A, Alhadid Y, Chung S, Michalet X, Weiss S. Toward dynamic structural biology: Two decades of single-molecule Förster resonance energy transfer. Science 2018; 359:eaan1133. [PMID: 29348210 PMCID: PMC6200918 DOI: 10.1126/science.aan1133] [Citation(s) in RCA: 305] [Impact Index Per Article: 50.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
Classical structural biology can only provide static snapshots of biomacromolecules. Single-molecule Förster resonance energy transfer (smFRET) paved the way for studying dynamics in macromolecular structures under biologically relevant conditions. Since its first implementation in 1996, smFRET experiments have confirmed previously hypothesized mechanisms and provided new insights into many fundamental biological processes, such as DNA maintenance and repair, transcription, translation, and membrane transport. We review 22 years of contributions of smFRET to our understanding of basic mechanisms in biochemistry, molecular biology, and structural biology. Additionally, building on current state-of-the-art implementations of smFRET, we highlight possible future directions for smFRET in applications such as biosensing, high-throughput screening, and molecular diagnostics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eitan Lerner
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Thorben Cordes
- Molecular Microscopy Research Group, Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials, University of Groningen, 9747 AG Groningen, Netherlands
- Physical and Synthetic Biology, Faculty of Biology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 82152 Planegg-Martinsried, Germany
| | - Antonino Ingargiol
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Yazan Alhadid
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - SangYoon Chung
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Xavier Michalet
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Shimon Weiss
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- Department of Physiology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- California NanoSystems Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
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Alhadid Y, Chung S, Lerner E, Taatjes DJ, Borukhov S, Weiss S. Studying transcription initiation by RNA polymerase with diffusion-based single-molecule fluorescence. Protein Sci 2017; 26:1278-1290. [PMID: 28370550 PMCID: PMC5477543 DOI: 10.1002/pro.3160] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/16/2016] [Revised: 03/11/2017] [Accepted: 03/13/2017] [Indexed: 01/30/2023]
Abstract
Over the past decade, fluorescence-based single-molecule studies significantly contributed to characterizing the mechanism of RNA polymerase at different steps in transcription, especially in transcription initiation. Transcription by bacterial DNA-dependent RNA polymerase is a multistep process that uses genomic DNA to synthesize complementary RNA molecules. Transcription initiation is a highly regulated step in E. coli, but it has been challenging to study its mechanism because of its stochasticity and complexity. In this review, we describe how single-molecule approaches have contributed to our understanding of transcription and have uncovered mechanistic details that were not observed in conventional assays because of ensemble averaging.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yazan Alhadid
- Interdepartmental Program in Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Physiology, University of California, Los Angeles, California, 90095
| | - SangYoon Chung
- Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, California, 90095
| | - Eitan Lerner
- Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, California, 90095
| | - Dylan J Taatjes
- Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, 80303
| | - Sergei Borukhov
- Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine, Stratford, New Jersey, 08084
| | - Shimon Weiss
- Interdepartmental Program in Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Physiology, University of California, Los Angeles, California, 90095
- Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, California, 90095
- Molecular Biology Institute (MBI), University of California, Los Angeles, California, 90095
- California NanoSystems Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, California, 90095
- Department of Physiology, University of California, Los Angeles, California, 90095
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Lerner E, Chung S, Allen B, Shuang W, Jookyung LJ, Winson Shijia L, Wilson Logan G, Ingargiola A, Alhadid Y, Borukhov S, Strick T, Taatjes DJ, Weiss S. Pausing in Escherichia coli Transcription Initiation. Biophys J 2016. [DOI: 10.1016/j.bpj.2015.11.1273] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
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