
Georgi
Belogurov
Adjunct Professor, Department of Life Technologies
Senior Research Fellow, Biochemistry
PhD, Docent, Adjunct Professor
Links
Areas of expertise
Transcription
enzyme kinetics
protein chemistry
phylogenomics.
Biography
M.S.- Moscow State University, School of Chemistry, Russia, 1997
Ph.D. - University of Turku, Dept. of Biochemistry and Food Chemistry, Finland, 2005
Postdoc - Ohio State Univesity, Dept. of Microbiology, USA, 2006-2009
Principal investigator - University of Turku, Dept. of Biochemistry, Finland, 2009-
Teaching
Molecular Biology (M. Sci. level)
Research
RNA polymerase (RNAP) is the enzyme that carries out the first step in gene expression, synthesis of RNA. All cellular RNAPs are multisubunit enzymes sharing homologous catalytic cores totaling ~2,500 amino acids. During RNA synthesis RNAP functions as a molecular motor and a helicase; its movement along the DNA is ultimately powered by the free energy liberated as nucleoside triphosphates are condensed into the nascent RNA and pyrophosphate is released. By importance and conservation among the life kingdoms RNAP rivals the ribosome, yet is considerably less complex and is amenable to kinetics and mechanistic studies in well-defined in vitro systems.
We study RNAP catalytic mechanism with emphasis on translocation, a step specific to processive polymerases and motor enzymes. Utilizing a relatively simple bacterial RNAP system we address mechanical, kinetic and energetic aspects of RNAP movement along the DNA. Another related line of our research deals with transcription elongation factors. Understanding the means by which transcription factors modulate RNAP catalytic efficiency and translocation kinetics helps us to unravel the basic mechanism of this complex molecular machine. Finally, RNAP is both an excellent phylogenetic marker for inferring species phylogenies and an attractive paradigm for studying the protein evolution. We employ molecular phylogenetic analyses to study the evolution of protein landscape in catalytically important areas of RNAP, as well as the evolution of other transcription-related proteins and the whole organisms.
Publications
Role of the trigger loop in translesion RNA synthesis by bacterial RNA polymerase (2020)
Journal of Biological Chemistry
(A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä)
The δ subunit and NTPase HelD institute a two-pronged mechanism for RNA polymerase recycling (2020)
Nature Communications
(A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä)
The Mechanisms of Substrate Selection, Catalysis, and Translocation by the Elongating RNA Polymerase (2019)
Journal of Molecular Biology
(A2 Katsausartikkeli tieteellisessä aikauslehdessä)
Oxazinomycin arrests RNA polymerase at the polythymidine sequences (2019)
Nucleic Acids Research
(A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä)
Characterization of C-nucleoside Antimicrobials from Streptomyces albus DSM 40763: Strepturidin is Pseudouridimycin (2019)
Scientific Reports
(A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä)
Structural basis of RNA polymerase I stalling at UV light-induced DNA damage (2018)
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
(A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä)
Locking the nontemplate DNA to control transcription (2018)
Molecular Microbiology
(A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä)
Uneven Braking Spins RNA Polymerase into a Pause (2018)
Molecular Cell
(B1 Kirjoitus tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä)
Active site closure stabilizes the backtracked state of RNA polymerase (2018)
Nucleic Acids Research
(A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä)
Discovery of the Showdomycin Gene Cluster from Streptomyces showdoensis ATCC 15227 Yields Insight into the Biosynthetic Logic of C-Nucleoside Antibiotics (2017)
ACS Chemical Biology
(A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä)