ArticleNature2005
Direct observation of base-pair stepping by RNA polymerase.
Article in Nature, 2005. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 321 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
321 citing papers in PubMed, 857 citations in OpenAlex.
- RfaH licenses RNA polymerase for long-range transcription.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Unraveling single-molecule reactions via multiplexed in-situ DNA sequencing.Nature communications · 2026Article
- RNA polymerase inhibitors reveal active-site motions essential for the nucleotide addition cycle.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- High-Resolution Optical Chromatography: Principles, Innovations, and Emerging Biomedical Applications.Micromachines · 2026Review
- Structural principles of transcriptional collisions.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- RNA polymerase inhibitors reveal active-site motions essential for the nucleotide-addition cycle.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Single-molecule force measurements show that r-proteins assist 23S rRNA co-transcriptional folding.Biophysical journal · 2026Article
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- Technology Roadmap of Micro/Nanorobots.ACS nano · 2025Review
- Pleomorphic effects of three small-molecule inhibitors on transcription elongation bybioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Single-molecule studies reveal the off-pathway early paused state intermediates as a target of streptolydigin inhibition of RNA polymerase and its dramatic enhancement by Gre factors.Nucleic acids research · 2025Article
- Single-molecule dynamic structural biology with vertically arranged DNA on a fluorescence microscope.Nature methods · 2025Article
- Single-molecule DNA dynamics with graphene energy transfer.Nature methods · 2025Article
- Visualizing Single V-ATPase Rotation Using Janus Nanoparticles.Nano letters · 2024Article
- Accurate drift-invariant single-molecule force calibration using the Hadamard variance.Biophysical journal · 2024Article
- Principles and regulation of mechanosensing.Journal of cell science · 2024Review
- Visualizing Single V-ATPase Rotation Using Janus Nanoparticles.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Nanopore tweezers show fractional-nucleotide translocation in sequence-dependent pausing by RNA polymerase.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Article
- The application of single-molecule optical tweezers to study disease-related structural dynamics in RNA.Biochemical Society transactions · 2024Review
261 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
During transcription, RNA polymerase (RNAP) moves processively along a DNA template, creating a complementary RNA. Here we present the development of an ultra-stable optical trapping system with ångström-level resolution, which we used to monitor transcriptional elongation by single molecules of Escherichia coli RNAP. Records showed discrete steps averaging 3.7 +/- 0.6 A, a distance equivalent to the mean rise per base found in B-DNA. By combining our results with quantitative gel analysis, we conclude that RNAP advances along DNA by a single base pair per nucleotide addition to the nascent RNA. We also determined the force-velocity relationship for transcription at both saturating and sub-saturating nucleotide concentrations; fits to these data returned a characteristic distance parameter equivalent to one base pair. Global fits were inconsistent with a model for movement incorporating a power stroke tightly coupled to pyrophosphate release, but consistent with a brownian ratchet model incorporating a secondary NTP binding site.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.