Welcome to the Landick Lab

Our research focuses on RNA polymerase, the central enzyme of gene expression in all free-living organisms. Our goal is to understand how RNA polymerase is regulated during the process of transcription (RNA synthesis). In organisms from bacteria to humans, the cell's ability to make long RNA chains, which include most mRNAs and some structural RNAs (e.g., rRNA), requires that extrinsic elongation regulators interact with RNA polymerase to suppress its innate tendency to fall into inactive off-line states that include long pauses, arrest, or termination. We seek to understand the fundamental properties of RNA polymerase that make it susceptible to pausing, arrest, or termination and how elongation regulators alter these properties. We study RNA polymerases from both bacterial and human cells and use a variety of approaches, from genetics to biophysics to structural biology, to study this fundamental paradigm of gene regulation. Lab members are engaged in experiments ranging from detailed biochemical characterization of protein-nucleic acid interactions, to the study of transcription regulators in cells using genome-scale methods (ChIPseq & RNAseq), to collaborative projects with other labs to study transcription by single molecules of RNA polymerase and to obtain crystallographic sturctures of RNA polymerase and transcription regulators. Our work has practical applications in drug discovery by identification on novel RNA polymerase inhibitors and in controlling transcriptional programs for synthetic microbiology. Follow links here to learn more about our research and our lab.

Check out our latest publications

Koslover DJ, Fazal FM, Mooney RA, Landick R, Block SM. 2012.  The β Binding and translocation of termination factor Rho studied at the single-molecule level. J. Mol. Biol. epub ahead of print.

Burmann BM, Knauer SH, Sevostyanova A, Schweimer K, Mooney RA, Landick R, Artsimovitch I, Ršsch P. 2012.  An &alpha-helix to &beta-barrel domain switch transforms the transcription factor RfaH into a translation factor. Cell 150, 291-303.

Sevostyanova A., G.A. Belogurov, Mooney RA, Landick R, Artsimovitch I. 2011.  The β Palangat M, Larson M, Hu X, Gnatt A, Block S, Landick R.. Transcription 3, 146-153.

Larson MH, Zhou J, Kaplan CD, Palangat M, Kornberg RD, Landick R, Block SM.. 2012.  Trigger loop dynamics mediate the balance between the transcriptional fidelity and speed of RNA polymerase II. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 109, 6555-7560.

Zhou J, Ha KS, La Porta A, Landick R, Block SM. 2011.  Applied force provides insight into transcriptional pausing and its modulation by transcription factor NusA. Mol. Cell 44, 635-646.

Palangat,, M., J.A. Grass, M.F. Langelier, B. Coulombe and R. Landick. 2011.  The RPB2 Flap Loop of Human RNA Polymerase II Is Dispensable for Transcription Initiation and Elongation Mol. Cell Biol. 31, 3312.

Hein, P., M. Palangat and R. Landick. 2011.  RNA transcript 3'-proximal sequence affects translocation bias of RNA polymerase. Biochemistry 50, 7002.

Sevostyanova A., G.A. Belogurov, Mooney RA, Landick R, Artsimovitch I. 2011.  The β Subunit Gate Loop Is Required for RNA Polymerase Modification by RfaH and NusG. Mol. Cell 43, 253-26.

Hein, P., and R. Landick. 2010.  The bridge helix coordinates movements of modules in RNA polymerase.. BMC Biol. 8, 141.

Conrad T.M., M. Frazier, A.R. Joyce, B.K. Cho, E.M. Knight, N.E. Lewis, R. Landick and B.O. Palsson. 2010.  RNA polymerase mutants found through adaptive evolution reprogram Escherichia coli for optimal growth in minimal media. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 107, 20500-20505.

Opalka, N., J. Brown, W.J. Lane, K.A. Twist, R. Landick, F.J. Asturias, S.A. Darst. 2010.  Complete structural model of Escherichia coli RNA polymerase from a hybrid approach. PLoS Biol. 8, pii:e1000483

Ha, K.S., I. Toulokhonov, D.G. Vassylyev, and R. Landick. 2010.  The NusA N-terminal domain is necessary and sufficient for enhancement of transcriptional pausing via interaction with the RNA exit channel of RNA polymerase. J. Mol. Biol. 401, 708-725.

Herbert K.M., Zhou J., Mooney R.A., Porta A.L., Landick R., and S.M. Block. 2010.  E. coli NusG inhibits backtracking and accelerates pause-free transcription by promoting forward translocation of RNA polymerase.. J. Mol. Biol. 399, 17-30.

Zhang J., Palangat M,. and R. Landick. 2010.  Role of the RNA polymerase trigger loop in catalysis and pausing. Nat. Struct. Mol. Biol., 17, 99-104.