Publications by authors named "Clarke R Conant"
Article Synopsis
- Protein N from bacteriophage lambda activates the lytic phase of phage development in E. coli by inhibiting transcription terminators, allowing essential phage proteins to be produced.
- N binds to a specific RNA structure (boxB) in the transcript and influences RNA polymerase activity at distant terminators, showing that an intact RNA transcript is crucial for this stabilization.
- The study suggests that N's interaction with RNA polymerase is stabilized by host Nus factors, indicating a complex mechanism for transcription regulation that could apply to other biological control systems.
The N protein of bacteriophage lambda activates transcription of genes that lie downstream of termination sequences by suppressing transcription termination. N binds to specific (boxB) and non-specific sites on the transcript RNA and contacts RNA polymerase via cis-RNA looping, resulting in "antitermination" of transcription. To find the effect of N-boxB binding on antitermination, we quantitatively relate binding measurements made in isolation to in vitro antitermination activity.
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