Structure and Regulatory Properties of Eucaryotic RNA Polymerase
This extract was created in the absence of an abstract.
Excerpt
It has been frequently proposed and popularly held that selective gene transcription in eucaryotes is a result primarily of the specificity of the template itself. According to this view, the activity of a particular gene is regulated by the macromolecules associated with the DNA in the chromatin matrix (Stedman and Stedman, 1950; Bonner et al., 1968; Davidson, 1968). It is implied that the specificity of the RNA polymerase is restricted to the recognition of the nucleotide substrates and that there is a single generalized initiation site on the DNA. Transcription then occurs on those cistrons which are not repressed or sequestered. Perhaps the most persuasive evidence supporting this view is the demonstration of apparent transcriptive specificity from chromatin using bacterial RNA polymerase as the transcriptive agent (Paul and Gilmour, 1968; Smith et al., 1969).
An alternative possibility involves a number of different sites on the chromosome for the initiation of...
