Roger Kornberg
Key Documents
Contact Information
- Academic Offices
Personal Information Email Tel (650) 723-6988
Professional Overview
Postdoctoral Advisees
Dominika Elmlund, Hans Elmlund, Pierre-Jean Mattei, Shigeki Nagai, Erez Podoly
Internet Links
Scientific Focus
Current Research Interests
Our goal is to elucidate the fundamental basis of gene regulation. We study the control of transcription, the first step in the pathway of gene expression. Current work focuses on discovery of the molecular machines involved in transcription, reconstitution of the process with purified components, structure determination of the transcription machinery, and structure-function relationships in chromatin, the natural DNA template for transcription.
Highlights of work from the past three years include:
1. Discovery of a human homolog of the 20-protein yeast Mediator complex. Mediator is the central processing unit of gene regulation, receiving both positive and negative inputs and transducing the information to the transcription machinery.
2. Structure determination of 10-subunit, half million Dalton RNA polymerase II, in the act of transcription, with template DNA and protduct RNA, by X-ray crystallography at atomic resolution.
3. Structure determination of the entire transcription initiation complex by two-dimensional protein crystallography.
4. Discovery of a stably altered nucleosome produced by a purified chromatin-remodeling complex.
Current work is directed towards the structure of the entire transcription apparatus at atomic resolution and the mechanism of transcription control in living cells.
Publications
- RNA polymerase II transcription: Structure and mechanism. Biochim Biophys Acta. 2013; (1): 2-8
- Structure of the mediator head module bound to the carboxy-terminal domain of RNA polymerase II. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012; (44): 17931-5
- Subunit architecture of general transcription factor TFIIH. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012; (6): 1949-54
- Tfb6, a previously unidentified subunit of the general transcription factor TFIIH, facilitates dissociation of Ssl2 helicase after transcription initiation. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012; (13): 4816-21
- Trigger loop dynamics mediate the balance between the transcriptional fidelity and speed of RNA polymerase II. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012; (17): 6555-60
- Initiation complex structure and promoter proofreading. Science. 2011; (6042): 633-7
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