Terminator (genetics)

In genetics, a transcription terminator is a section of nucleic acid sequence that marks the end of a gene or operon in genomic DNA during transcription. This sequence mediates transcriptional termination by providing signals in the newly synthesized transcript RNA that trigger processes which release the transcript RNA from the transcriptional complex. These processes include the direct interaction of the mRNA secondary structure with the complex and/or the indirect activities of recruited termination factors. Release of the transcriptional complex frees RNA polymerase and related transcriptional machinery to begin transcription of new mRNAs.

Two classes of transcription terminators, Rho-dependent and Rho-independent, have been identified throughout prokaryotic genomes. These widely distributed sequences are responsible for triggering the end of transcription upon normal completion of gene or operon transcription, mediating early termination of transcripts as a means of regulation such as that observed in transcriptional attenuation, and to ensure the termination of runaway transcriptional complexes that manage to escape earlier terminators by chance, which prevents unnecessary energy expenditure for the cell.

Rho-dependent transcription terminators require a protein called Rho factor, which exhibits RNA helicase activity, to disrupt the mRNA-DNA-RNA polymerase transcriptional complex. Rho-dependent terminators are found in bacteria and phage. The Rho-dependent terminator occurs downstream of translational stop codons and consists of an unstructured, cytosine-rich sequence on the mRNA known as a Rho utilization site (rut) for which a consensus sequence has not been identified, and a downstream transcription stop point (tsp). The rut serves as a mRNA loading site and as an activator for Rho; activation enables Rho to efficiently hydrolyze ATP and translocate down the mRNA while it maintains contact with the rut site. Rho is able to catch up with the RNA polymerase, which is stalled at the downstream tsp sites. Contact between Rho and the RNA polymerase complex stimulates dissociation of the transcriptional complex through a mechanism involving allosteric effects of Rho on RNA polymerase.

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