[Factors influencing the pulse character of RNA elongation in vitro by E. coli RNA polymerase].

Pause location along primary structure of two RNA fragments each 200 nucleotide residues in the length synthesized from A1 promoters of T7 phage DNA and delta D111 T7 phage DNA was analyzed. No correlation between the location of pauses and GC-rich or self complementary regions of RNA were found. The location of pauses does not change upon the variation of the temperature or ionic strength. Concurrent variation of all four NTP concentrations also did not influence pausing pattern. However the distribution of pauses depends highly on the ratio of the individual substrate concentrations. Substitution of GTP by ITP changes the pausing pattern completely. Inorganic pyrophosphate (PPi) of inhibits RNA elongation preferentially in the regions: NAUN, CGUAG. The study of PPi action on RNA terminated with 3' OCH3-NMP suggest that the sequence-specific inhibition of RNA elongation may be a result of pyrophosphorolysis of terminal nucleotide residues of RNA. It was proposed that the pulse character of RNA elongation stems rather from differences in the kinetic constants of nucleotides attachment and pyrophosphorolysis from the 3'-termini of RNA than by termination signals encoded in the primary structure of DNA. The stable location of pauses in certain short oligonucleotides: AUG, AUU, AAU and some others is in favour of the hypothesis.