Polymerases pause to help mediate the flow of genetic information
Wednesday, May 17, 2017 - 09:31
in Physics & Chemistry
Stop-and-go traffic is typically a source of frustration, an unneccesary hold-up on the path from point A to point B. But when it comes to the molecular machinery that copies our DNA into RNA, a stop right at the beginning of the path may actually be helpful. Recent research shows that this stop prevents another machine from immediately following the first, presumably to better control the traffic and avoid later collisions.