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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Nikolay ZenkinORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
© The Author(s) 2025.In many bacterial species, transcription and translation can be coupled physically, with potential impact on the rates and efficiency of gene expression. Here, we present structural evidence from cryo-EM demonstrating that a bacterial RNA polymerase that is paused proximally to the promoter can associate with the pioneering 30S translation initiation complex (30S IC). These findings suggest that the physical link between transcription and translation can be established prior to commitment to protein synthesis. Although the mRNA is embedded in this ‘early expressome’ complex, it can nonetheless interact with small regulatory RNA (sRNA) and be targeted for cleavage in the protein-coding region by the RNA degradosome assembly in vitro. The potential tagging of transcripts with sRNA during pioneering and subsequent stages of translation initiation, when the 30S IC is at the 5′ end of a polyribosome, may in principle contribute to efficient and rapid termination of gene expression in response to regulatory signals.
Author(s): Roske JJ, Paris G, Goyal A, Rodnina M, Zenkin N, Bandyra KJ, Luisi BF
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Nature Communications
Year: 2026
Volume: 17
Issue: 1
Print publication date: 20/01/2026
Online publication date: 13/12/2025
Acceptance date: 27/11/2025
Date deposited: 02/02/2026
ISSN (electronic): 2041-1723
Publisher: Nature Research
URL: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-67330-2
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-67330-2
Data Access Statement: The data supporting the findings of this study are available from the corresponding authors upon request. Structure data are available from the EMDB. EMD-55527 Early Expressome Composite Map of TEC and 30S IC EMD-55528 Early Expressome Consensus Refinement EMD-55529 Early Expressome RNAP/TEC body EMD-55530 E. coli 30S IC containing mRNA, IF1 and IF3 EMD-55531 E. coli 30S IC containing mRNA, initiator tRNA, IF1 and IF2
PubMed id: 41390511
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