Cited by 431Genomics and Chromatin DynamicsBacterial Genetics and BiotechnologyRNA and protein synthesis mechanisms

Evolution of multisubunit RNA polymerases in the three domains of life

Werner, Finn, Grohmann, Dina·2011·Nature Reviews Microbiology

Abstract

RNA polymerases (RNAPs) carry out transcription in all living organisms. All multisubunit RNAPs are derived from a common ancestor, a fact that becomes apparent from their amino acid sequence, subunit composition, structure, function and molecular mechanisms. Despite the similarity of these complexes, the organisms that depend on them are extremely diverse, ranging from microorganisms to humans. Recent findings about the molecular and functional architecture of RNAPs has given us intriguing insights into their evolution and how their activities are harnessed by homologous and analogous basal factors during the transcription cycle. We provide an overview of the evolutionary conservation of and differences between the multisubunit polymerases in the three domains of life, and introduce the 'elongation first' hypothesis for the evolution of transcriptional regulation.

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Crossref · 10.1038/nrmicro2507

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  • The last common ancestor may have had RNA and phosphodiester-based energy coupling.

    “Specifically, the last common ancestor may have had a cell membrane (Jékely 2006;Koga 2011;Lombard et al. 2012;Sojo et al. 2014;Coleman et al. 2019), RNA and phosphodiester-based energy coupling (e.g.Werner and Grohmann 2011), as well as thioester-based intermediary metabolism (Goldford et al. 2017;Weiss et al. 2018), but may not have used a strictly DNA genome (Mushegian and Koonin 1996;Leipe et”

    From The Emergence of Life (2019) · cites this paper as Werner and Grohmann 2011

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Authors
Werner, F., & Grohmann, D.
Affiliations
Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology (GB)
Corresponding author
Werner, Finn
Venue
Nature Reviews Microbiology
Published
2011-01-13
Volume
9
Issue
2
Pages
85-98
ISSN
  • 1740-1526 (ISSN-L)
  • 1740-1534
OpenAlex
W1992223935
Cited by
431
References
120
Citations by year
2026: 18 · 2025: 19 · 2024: 28 · 2023: 26 · 2022: 25 · 2021: 38 · 2020: 39 · 2019: 35 · 2018: 28 · 2017: 36 · 2016: 21 · 2015: 24 · 2014: 21 · 2013: 30 · 2012: 28
FWCI
2.72
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Nature Reviews Microbiology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
Funders
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/H019332/1)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Genomics and Chromatin Dynamics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Bacterial Genetics and Biotechnology
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › RNA and protein synthesis mechanisms
Keywords
three domains of life, transcriptional regulation, basal transcription factors, subunit composition, eukaryotic RNA polymerase, archaeal RNA polymerase, bacterial RNA polymerase
MeSH terms
Archaea, Bacteria, Models, Molecular, Phylogeny, DNA-Directed RNA Polymerases, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Gene Expression Regulation, Enzymologic, Conserved Sequence, Evolution, Molecular, Protein Structure, Quaternary, Transcriptional Elongation Factors

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