Architecture of a transcribing-translating expressome

Abstract

Coupling transcription and translation In bacteria, the transcription of DNA into mRNA by RNA polymerase is coupled to the translation of that mRNA into protein by the ribosome. How this coupling is achieved has been unclear. Kohler et al. show that RNA polymerase and the ribosome from Escherichia coli can form a so-called expressome complex. Electron microscopy structural analysis, together with functional experiments, revealed details of the coupled complex. The coupling could allow translation to prevent transcriptional pausing, backtracking, and termination. Science , this issue p. 194