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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2021 Jun 26.
Published in final edited form as: J Mol Biol. 2020 Mar 19;432(14):3981–3986. doi: 10.1016/j.jmb.2020.03.018

Fig. 2.

Fig. 2.

Premature transcription termination (PTT) depends on various factors. (A) When RNAP pauses during transcription of a natural mRNA that is highly translated, ribosomes occlude Rho from nascent chain rut sites (red) and may facilitate pause escape by “nudging” RNAP forward. Hence, the chances of Rho-dependent PTT are low. (B) When the same gene depicted in panel A contains a nonsense mutation, ribosome traffic is eliminated. This gives Rho access to rut sites (red) and PTT becomes favorable. (C) When RNAP pauses during transcription of a natural mRNA that is normally translated with a low initiation rate, other mechanisms must be employed to prevent Rho-dependent PTT. These likely include RNA structures and omission of rut sites.