Hybrid Monday Lecture Series
(open to the Rockefeller community)
Monday, November 17, 2025
Seth Darst, Ph.D.
Jack Fishman Professor and Head of the Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics, The Rockefeller University
Visualizing the Bacterial Transcription Cycle in Action
Recommended Readings:
Brewer, Joshua, et al. “Structural basis for loading of Transcription Repair-Coupling factor Mfd onto stalled elongation complexes.” bioRxiv (2025): 2025-09.
Mueller, Andreas U., et al. “Real-time capture of σN transcription initiation intermediates reveals mechanism of ATPase-driven activation by limited unfolding.” Nature Communications 16.1 (2025): 7138.
Brewer, Joshua J., et al. “RapA opens the RNA polymerase clamp to disrupt post-termination complexes and prevent cytotoxic R-loop formation.” Nature Structural & Molecular Biology 32.4 (2025): 639-649.
Saecker, Ruth M., et al. “Early intermediates in bacterial RNA polymerase promoter melting visualized by time-resolved cryo-electron microscopy.” Nature Structural & Molecular Biology 31.11 (2024): 1778-1788.
Darst, Seth A. “Bacterial RNA polymerase.” Current opinion in structural biology 11.2 (2001): 155-162.
