Interactive structures

The DNA-dependent RNA polymerase from bacteriophage T7 is a member of a large class of polymerases, represented best by E coli DNA polymerase I, but also including reverse transcriptase and RNA-dependent RNA polymerases. While it is structurally unrelated to bacterial and eukaryotic RNA polymerases (which together represent another class of RNA polymerases), it is related to eukaryotic mitochondrial and chloroplast RNA polymerases.

Quick interactive tutorials are available at the following links:

• Initiation – explore here
• Initial transcription – explore here
• Elongation – explore here

The currently available structures of T7 RNA polymerase are:

• 1CEZ – initiation configuration with promoter DNA (2.4A)
• 2PI5 – initiation configuration (2.9A)
• 2PI4 – initiation configuration with 2 bound GTPs (2.5A)
• 1QLN – initiation configuration with promoter DNA and 3 base transcript (2.4A)
• 3E2E – initially transcribing complex with 7 base transcript (3A)
• 3E3J – initially transcribing complex with 8 base transcript (6.7A)
• 1MSW – elongation complex (2.1A)
• 1H38 – elongation complex (2.9A)
• 1S0V – elongation complex with substrate analog (3.2A)
• 1S76 – elongation complex with bound alpha beta methylene ATP (2.9A)
• 1S77 – elongation complex with bound pyrophosphate (2.7A)
• 4RNP – isolated enzyme, high salt (3A)
• 1ARO – polymerase complexed with T7 lysozyme (2.8A)

Note that we have prepared a PyMOL script to download all of the above, align them, and establish chain nomenclature uniformity. Please inquire.