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Balanced Branching in Transcription TerminationThe theory of stochastic transcription termination based on free-energy competition [von Hippel, P. H. & Yager, T. D. (1992) Science 255,809-812 and van Hippel, P. H. & Yager, T. D. (1991) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 88, 2307-2311] requires two or more reaction rates to be delicately balanced over a wide range of physical conditions. A large body of work on glasses and large molecules suggests that this balancing should be impossible in such a large system in the absence of a new organizing principle of matter. We review the experimental literature of termination and find no evidence for such a principle, but do find many troubling Inconsistencies, most notably, anomalous memory effects. These effects suggest that termination has a deterministic component and may conceivably not be stochastic at all. We find that a key experiment by Wilson and von Hippel [Wilson, K. S. & von Hippel, P. H. (1994) J. Mol. Biol. 244,36-51] thought to demonstrate stochastic termination was an incorrectly analyzed regulatory effect of Mg(2+) binding.
Document ID
20010066868
Acquisition Source
Ames Research Center
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Authors
Harrington, K. J.
(Stanford Univ. Stanford, CA United States)
Laughlin, R. B.
(Stanford Univ. Stanford, CA United States)
Liang, S.
(NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA United States)
Date Acquired
August 20, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 2000
Publication Information
Publication: PNAS Early Edition
Subject Category
Life Sciences (General)
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NCC2-794
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

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