PROSITE logo
Black ribbon
We are deeply saddened by the passing of Amos Bairoch (1957–2025), the creator of PROSITE. We wish to dedicate our latest paper, published shortly before his death, to him. He will always be a source of inspiration to us.
Our deepest condolences go out to his family and friends, and to all those who had the privilege of working with him. Rest in peace, Amos. Your work will live on long after you are gone.
Amos Bairoch

PROSITE documentation PDOC00651
Prokaryotic transcription elongation factors signatures


View entry in original PROSITE document format
View entry in raw text format (no links)
PURL: https://purl.expasy.org/prosite/documentation/PDOC00651

Description

Bacterial proteins greA and greB [1,2] are necessary for efficient RNA polymerase transcription elongation past template-encoded arresting sites. Arresting sites in DNA have the property of trapping a certain fraction of elongating RNA polymerases that pass through, resulting in locked DNA/RNA/ polymerase ternary complexes. Cleavage of the nascent transcript by cleavage factors, such as greA or greB, allows the resumption of elongation from the new 3'terminus. GreA induces cleavage 2 or 3 nucleotides behind the terminus while greB releases longer sequences up to 9 nucleotides in length.

GreA and greB are related proteins of about 160 amino-acid residues. We have developed two signature patterns for this protein family. The first corresponds to a conserved region in the N-terminal section, the second to a region in the C-terminal section.

Last update:

December 2004 / Pattern and text revised.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Technical section

PROSITE methods (with tools and information) covered by this documentation:

GREAB_1, PS00829; Prokaryotic transcription elongation factors signature 1  (PATTERN)

GREAB_2, PS00830; Prokaryotic transcription elongation factors signature 2  (PATTERN)


References

1AuthorsBorukhov S. Sagitov V. Goldfarb A.
TitleTranscript cleavage factors from E. coli.
SourceCell 72:459-466(1993).
PubMed ID8431948

2AuthorsStebbins C.E. Borukhov S. Orlova M. Polyakov A. Goldfarb A. Darst S.A.
TitleCrystal structure of the GreA transcript cleavage factor from Escherichia coli.
SourceNature 373:636-640(1995).
PubMed ID7854424
DOI10.1038/373636a0



PROSITE is copyrighted by the SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics and distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) License, see prosite_license.html.