David G Bear

Interests

Research

RNA synthesis and intracellular trafficking in muscle cells and muscle cell diseases

Teaching

Genetics and Molecular Biology for medical students, graduate students, and undergraduate student, as well as medical residents and clinicians

Courses

Scholarly Contributions

Journals/Publications

• Bear, D. G., Hippel, P. H., & Mcswiggen, J. A. (1988). Interactions of Escherichia coli transcription termination factor rho with RNA. Journal of Molecular Biology. doi:10.1016/0022-2836(88)90305-1
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  In this paper we examine the binding of Escherichia coli transcription termination factor rho to single-stranded RNA. Random polyribonucleotide copolymers containing low ratios of the fluorescent base 1,N6-ethenoadenosine have been synthesized using polynucleotide phosphorylase. Binding of rho to these polynucleotides elicits a significant increase in fluorescence, thus allowing either the direct monitoring of the titration of these polynucleotides with rho or measurement of the competitive displacement of the protein from these probes with other nucleic acids, even in the presence of biologically significant concentrations of ATP. By these techniques, it is shown that the binding site size (n) of rho protein to polynucleotides is 13(+/- 1) nucleotide residues per rho monomer (or 78(+/- 6) nucleotide residues per rho hexamer). Binding constants (K) and co-operativity parameters (omega) for the binding of rho to these polynucleotides have been measured as a function of nucleotide composition and of salt concentration. The results show that the affinity of rho for cytosine residues is quite strong and salt concentration independent, whilst binding to uridine residues is somewhat weaker and very salt concentration dependent. Poly(rC) and poly(dC) bind to rho competitively and with equal affinity and site size, although poly(rC) is the strongest cofactor for activating rho-dependent ATPase and poly(dC) has no ATPase cofactor activity at all. It is also shown that ATP (or ADP or ATP-gamma-S) binding does not change the binding site size of rho on RNA nor decrease its affinity for RNA binding. Circular dichroism measurements of rho binding to phage R17 RNA suggest that the affinity (K omega) of rho for RNA may be increased by ATP. The possible significance of these results for models of rho-dependent transcription termination is discussed in the companion paper.
• Bear, D. G., Hippel, P. H., Litchman, B. L., & Morgan, W. D. (1985). RNA sequence and secondary structure requiresments for rho-dependent transcription termination. Nucleic Acids Research. doi:10.1093/nar/13.10.3739
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  The interaction of E. coli termination factor rho with the nascent RNA transcript appears to be a central feature of the rho-dependent transcription termination process. Based on in vitro studies of the rho-dependent termination of the transcript initiated at the PR promoter of bacteriophage lambda, and on earlier studies, Morgan, Bear and von Hippel (J. Biol. Chem. 258, 9565-9574, 1983) proposed a model defining the features of a potential binding site for rho protein on transcripts subject to rho-dependent termination. This model suggested that an effective rho binding site on a nascent RNA transcript should be: (i) greater than 70-80 nucleotide residues in length; (ii) essentially unencumbered with stable secondary structure; (iii) relatively sequence non-specific; and (iv) located within a few hundred nucleotide residues upstream of the potential rho-dependent terminus. In this paper we examine the sequences and secondary structures of several transcripts that exhibit rho-dependent termination to test this hypothesis further. Unstructured regions of approximately the expected size and location were found on all the transcripts examined. Though several short specific sequence elements were found to occur in a very similar arrangement on the lambda PR- and lambda PL-initiated transcripts of lambda phage, no such elements of sequence regularity were found on any of the other rho-dependent transcripts. The results of the sequence comparisons reported here strongly support the generality of the "unstructured binding site" hypothesis for rho-dependent termination.