Structural and functional studies on the negative elongation factor

Pöllmann, David (2015): Structural and functional studies on the negative elongation factor. Dissertation, LMU München: Fakultät für Chemie und Pharmazie

Abstract

In many metazoans RNA polymerase II is stably paused after transcribing 20-60 nucleotides of a gene and awaits controlled release. The four subunit Negative Elongation Factor (NELF) is essential to this process which is called promoter-proximal pausing. In this work, a highly conserved NELF subcomplex consisting of NELF-A (6-188) and NELF-C (183-590) was identified, crystallized and its structure solved to 2.8 Å resolution. Further, a novel sequence dependent interaction of NELF-AC with single-stranded nucleic acids was discovered and the architecture of the complete NELF complex elucidated by crosslinking coupled with mass-spectrometry. The results suggest a possible model for NELF action at the molecular level.

• Dokumententyp: Dissertationen (Dissertation, LMU München)
• Keywords: NELF, Negative Elongation Factor, promoter-proximal pausing, transcription, structural biology
• Themengebiete: 500 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik ; 500 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik > 540 Chemie
• Fakultäten: Fakultät für Chemie und Pharmazie
• Sprache der Hochschulschrift: Englisch
• Datum der mündlichen Prüfung: 30. September 2015
• 1. Bericht­erstatter:in: Cramer, Patrick