On December 24, 2021, Zhang Yu's research team and Wang Jiawei's research team from the Center for Excellence in Molecular and Plant Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Feng Yu's team from Zhejiang University collaborated to publish a research paper in Science, which studied and analyzed the three-dimensional structure of the Pol IV-RDR2 protein complex and proposed the unique molecular mechanism of Pol IV-RDR2 synthesizing double-stranded RNA using double-stranded DNA as a template.
Researcher Yu Zhang is analyzing the protein structure
The study found that Pol IV and RDR2 resembled two separate workshops for the synthesis of different RNA, cleverly merging and creating an internal channel between the two otherwise separate workshops. The work of the Pol IV synthesis workshop is to synthesize single-stranded RNA with double-stranded DNA as a template, and the synthesized single-stranded RNA products can be directly transmitted to the synthesis workshop of RDR2 through internal channels, so that RDR2 can directly synthesize double-stranded RNA with single-stranded RNA as a template. Based on this, the researchers proposed that the protein machine Pol IV-RDR2 complex is like a factory that efficiently synthesizes double-stranded RNA, using double-stranded DNA as a template to deliver single-stranded RNA intermediates inside the protein machine, continuously and efficiently synthesizing double-stranded RNA.
The internal transfer channel of the RNA connects the two RNA polymerases
The study successfully elucidated the structure of the fourth eukaryote RNA polymerase, revealed the unique structure and synergistic mechanism of the double RNA polymerase complex, and proposed a novel working mode of the transcriptional protein machine. The research results are a major breakthrough in the frontiers of molecular biology and plant science.
Source: CCTV News