Bacterial RNA polymerase exemplifies a general physical mechanism for accelerating protein-DNA association
Francis Rivera, Alex Turek, Wencheng Ji, Matt Copeland, Larry J. Friedman, Fiona Stewart, Johnson Chung, Ariel Amir, Jané Kondev, Jeff Gelles
The paper shows that bacterial RNA polymerase's C-terminal domains accelerate DNA binding through a physical mechanism involving flexible tethers.
bioRxiv · Jul 22, 2026 · PreprintBiophysics