RNAP Promoter Search and Transcription Kinetics in Live Cells.

Bacterial transcription has been studied extensively , which has provided detailed molecular mechanisms of transcription. The cellular environment, however, may impose different rules on transcription than the homogeneous and well-controlled environment. How an RNA polymerase (RNAP) molecule searches rapidly through vast nonspecific chromosomal DNA in the three-dimensional nucleoid space and identifies a specific promoter sequence remains elusive.