Katsuhiko S. Murakami

This study isolates and structures native Pol II transcription complexes and nucleosomes from Drosophila embryos, revealing new insights into transcription dynamics and nucleosome interactions.

This study reveals the structural basis for Rifamycin B's activity against rifampicin-resistant RNA polymerase, showing its unique binding mechanism and potential for drug development.

The paper investigates transcription termination in cyanobacteria, finding that most transcription units lack canonical intrinsic terminators and suggesting novel termination mechanisms.

This study presents the structure of Si3, a unique insertion in cyanobacterial RNA polymerase, and shows it does not affect catalytic activity despite large motion.

This paper reveals the structural mechanism of NusG-dependent transcription pausing by showing how NusG interacts with the TTNTTT motif to inhibit RNAP conformational changes required for RNA synthesis.

This study reveals how DksA/ppGpp regulates rRNA transcription by altering RNAP conformation and promoter DNA binding in Escherichia coli.

This study identifies HelD as a nucleic acids-clearing factor for RNA polymerase in Mycobacterium smegmatis, revealing its role in recycling RNA polymerase by preventing non-specific DNA interactions and dissociating elongation complexes.

The paper determines structures of bacterial RNA polymerase during reiterative transcription and reveals mechanisms of RNA slippage and product length determination at two promoters.

The paper determines the cryo-EM structure of E. coli σ70 RNAP and promoter DNA complex, revealing a role of σNCR in open complex formation.

This study reports the X-ray crystal structures of E. coli RNA polymerase complexes with DksA and ppGpp, revealing how ppGpp enhances DksA's inhibition of transcription initiation.