{"doi":"10.1107/s0108767321093934","title":"Deciphering the role of unique bacterial transcription-associated factor HelD","abstract":"Bacterial RNA polymerase (RNAP) is an essential multisubunit enzyme performing transcription. Regulation of this process is secured through the stage-dependent interactions of RNAP with different factors (mostly proteins). Here we report the structurefunction analysis of the functional complexes between RNAP and a unique helicase-like factor HelD [1] which is present in many Gram-positive bacteria (e.g. Bacillus subtilis and Mycobacterium smegmatis) [2, 3]. HelD forms tightly bound complexes with RNAP. It simultaneously penetrates into RNAP primary and secondary channels which are responsible for nucleic acids binding and substrate delivery. HelD can also interact with the RNAP active site. Structurally, these interactions are incompatible with the binding of DNA to the RNAP core and thus with the elongation stage of transcription. This is in accordance to our functional data showing that HelD is capable of clearing RNAP of nucleic acids and that HelD can dismantle RNAP-DNA complexes. HelD itself is composed of several domains, showing structural changes in solution [2] as well as in complexes with RNAP (three different structural states obtained from the cryo-EM analysis) [3]. Although we were able to link the observed dynamic behaviour with the DNA-clearing role of HelD, the recycling of HelD-bound RNAP and subsequent restart of transcription remains to be explained.","journal":"Acta Crystallographica Section A Foundations and Advances","year":2021,"id":228648,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.961,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":570999,"name":"Tomáš Kouba","orcid":"0000-0001-8173-6930","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":571001,"name":"Petra Sudzinová","orcid":"0000-0003-1005-1998","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":571002,"name":"Jiří Pospíšil","orcid":"0000-0002-4720-5439","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":571870,"name":"Barbora Brezovská","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":571003,"name":"Jarmila Hnilicová","orcid":"0000-0002-0953-491X","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":571004,"name":"Hana Šanderová","orcid":"0000-0002-5436-7583","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":833647,"name":"Martina Janoušková","orcid":"0000-0002-6041-8068","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":571006,"name":"Michaela Šiková","orcid":"0000-0001-9244-2604","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":571007,"name":"Petr Halada","orcid":"0000-0002-7229-3450","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":571008,"name":"Michal Sýkora","orcid":"0000-0001-8049-0748","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":571009,"name":"Ivan Barvı́k","orcid":"0000-0002-0802-1346","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":571010,"name":"Jiří Nováček","orcid":"0000-0003-4013-3898","position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":571011,"name":"Mária Trundová","orcid":"0000-0003-1351-5719","position":13,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":571012,"name":"Jarmila Dušková","orcid":"0000-0001-9261-3653","position":14,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":571013,"name":"Tereza Skálová","orcid":"0000-0003-3186-2431","position":15,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":833864,"name":"U-Ree Chon","orcid":null,"position":16,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":415430,"name":"Katsuhiko Murakami","orcid":"0000-0003-2244-0501","position":17,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":571015,"name":"Libor Krásný","orcid":"0000-0002-4120-4347","position":18,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":571014,"name":"Jan Dohnálek","orcid":"0000-0002-8083-7980","position":19,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":571000,"name":"T. Kovaĺ","orcid":"0000-0002-2836-3765","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:54:54.016932Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}