Initial transcribed region sequences influence the composition and functional properties of the bacterial elongation complex

Abstract

The bacterial RNA polymerase (RNAP) holoenzyme consists of a catalytic core enzyme (alpha 2 beta beta'omega) in complex with a sigma factor that is essential for promoter recognition and transcription initiation. During early elongation, the stability of interactions between sigma and the remainder of the transcription complex decreases. Nevertheless, there is no mechanistic requirement for release of sigma upon the transition to elongation. Furthermore, sigma can remain associated with RNAP during transcription elongation and influence regulatory events that occur during transcription elongation. Here we demonstrate that promoter-like DNA sequence elements within the initial transcribed region that are known to induce early elongation pausing through sequence-specific interactions with sigma also function to increase the sigma content of downstream elongation complexes. Our findings establish sigma-dependent pausing as a mechanism by which initial transcribed region sequences can influence the composition and functional properties of the transcription elongation complex over distances of at least 700 base pairs.