Effects of template topology on RNA polymerase pausing during in vitro transcription of the Escherichia coli rrnB leader region.

Transcription elongation catalysed by DNA-dependent RNA polymerase does not occur at a constant rate. Instead, during the transcription of many genes pausing occurs at defined template positions. Pausing is known to be influenced by the intracellular NTP concentration, the secondary structure of the growing transcript or by transcription factors like NusA. We have investigated the effects of the template topology of transcriptional pauses in the presence and absence on purified NusA protein. Taking advantage of a method for quantifying transcriptional pauses we have studied pausing behaviour during in vitro transcription of the early region of a plasmid-encoded ribosomal RNA operon. Plasmid templates with different superhelical densities (sigma between +0.0017 and -0.055) were employed in transcription elongation assays. If linearized or relaxed templates are used, some of the characteristic pauses can no longer be detected. For the stronger pauses we could demonstrate a direct correlation between pause strength and the negative superhelical densities of the templates used. This correlation is observed regardless of whether or not pauses are dependent upon NusA. Changes in the average transcription elongation rate, caused by variations in the NTP concentration or the temperature, do not appear to have a comparable effect on transcription pausing. The results are consistent with the assumption that the template topology has a regulatory function in transcription elongation of rRNA genes in Escherichia coli.