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The Department of Biochemistry at the University of Oxford is a centre for world class research and teaching of all aspects of Biochemistry by staff from many different backgrounds and nationalities. Our research addresses a wide range of questions relating to the fundamental basis of all cellular life from man to microbes. This work explains the structures and functions of proteins and nucleic acids, and in doing so addresses the mechanisms of many human diseases. Using this knowledge, other researchers aim to create new vaccines, antiviral and antibacterial therapies to protect and treat humans across the world.
You can read more about the details of our current work and other aspects of the department, including undergraduate teaching and public outreach activities, on these web pages.
Professor Mark Sansom, Head of Department
News Highlight
New paper shows how transcription terminates with the help of a phosphatase
New research from Lidia Vasilieva's lab sheds light on how transcription termination in eukaryotes is controlled.
Model proposed. Conserved PP1 orchestrates transition from elongation to termination by dephosphorylating Spt5 and CTD-Thr4P at the end of the transcription cycle
(Click to Enlarge)
The findings, from Dr Vasilieva's group in collaboration with colleagues in the Department of Chemistry, are published in Cell Reports (1) and demonstrate that conserved mechanisms are used at different steps of transcription. The work will help to fill the gaps in our understanding of how RNA polymerase II is released at the end of transcription.
All three stages of the transcription cycle of mRNAs - initiation, elongation and termination - are tightly regulated. The multi-protein complex RNA polymerase II (Pol II) interacts with a different set of factors to regulate the transition between these stages. The factors modulate how Pol II behaves, changing its ability to interact with DNA, incorporate nucleotides or pause.
Pol II interacts with factors via its core and also via the C-terminal domain (CTD) of its largest subunit, which consists of heptad repeats in which a number of residues can be reversibly phosphorylated during the transcription cycle. At the initiation to elongation transition, initiation factors that are bound to the core are replaced by elongation factors, causing Pol II to pause. Termination is essential for 3' end formation of functional mRNA, mRNA release, and Pol II recycling, but the changes that take place as Pol II moves from elongation to termination are less well understood. In fission yeast, an organism that serves as a good model for more complex eukaryotes, a conserved termination factor called Seb1 is known to interact directly with the CTD and is essential for regulating 3' end processing and termination.
