Program
| MSB2d | |
|---|---|
| Richard Yamada | |
| University of Michigan | |
| Title | Error Correcting Mechanisms During Transcriptional Elongation |
| Abstract | Transcription is a complex process consisting of 3 distinct steps: initiation, elongation and termination. Out of these steps, elongation is the most natural step in transcription to be modeled in a quantitative manner. During elongation, the RNA polymerase rapidly adds ribonucleotide triphosphates (rNTPs) to the nascent RNA chain. Surprisingly, this process is remarkably accurate (error of ~1 base per 100,000 bases transcribed). The look-ahead model, proposed by Yamada and Peskin, is a model that governs the dynamics of elongation during transcription. An important integer parameter of the look-ahead model is the window size (in bases). In this talk, we investigate the effect of this window size in the error rate during transcription. We show an example in which there is dramatic reduction in the error rate as the window size increases, especially for small window sizes. We conclude by discussing the model's fit to experimental data and by making further experimental predictions from the model. |
| Location | Friedman 153 |