Streptomyces coelicolor (Sc) is a model organism of actinobacteria to study morphological differentiation and production of bioactive metabolites. Sc zinc uptake regulator (Zur) affects both processes by controlling zinc homeostasis. It activates transcription by binding to palindromic Zur-box sequences upstream of −35 elements.
Scientists recently used cryoEM to decipher the mechanism of Zur binding to specific promoters. This transcription factor (light blue surface) interacts simultaneously with the DNA and the RNA polymerase. Better than in text-books, we can now see the importance of the positions -35 and -10 in prokaryotic promoters, and also how transcriptional regulators can control the expression of specific genes. Happy to know that all the things that I explained to my students can be visualized at the atomic level (PDB code: 7X74)
#molecularart ... #immolecular ... #promoter ... #RNApolymerase ... #Zur ... #textbook ... #transcription ... #regulation ... #cryoem
Structure of the Streptomyces RNA polymerase, DNA and Zur complex determined rendered by @proteinimaging and depicted with @corelphotopaint
Scientists recently used cryoEM to decipher the mechanism of Zur binding to specific promoters. This transcription factor (light blue surface) interacts simultaneously with the DNA and the RNA polymerase. Better than in text-books, we can now see the importance of the positions -35 and -10 in prokaryotic promoters, and also how transcriptional regulators can control the expression of specific genes. Happy to know that all the things that I explained to my students can be visualized at the atomic level (PDB code: 7X74)
#molecularart ... #immolecular ... #promoter ... #RNApolymerase ... #Zur ... #textbook ... #transcription ... #regulation ... #cryoem
Structure of the Streptomyces RNA polymerase, DNA and Zur complex determined rendered by @proteinimaging and depicted with @corelphotopaint
