Investigation of bacterial transcription fidelity and processivity

Bistable switches are the key elements of the regulatory networks governing cell development, differentiation and life-strategy decisions. Transcriptional noise is a main determinant that causes switching between different states in bistable systems. By using the human pathogen Streptococcus pneumoniae as a model bacterium, we will investigate how transcriptional fidelity and processivity influence (noisy) gene expression and participate in bistability. To study this question, we will use both
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Handling and manipulation of S. pneumoniae using molecular, cell biological and genetic tools.

Artificial transcription elongation compexes are assembled in vitro using synthetic deoxy-oligonucleotides (representing template and non template DNA strands), radiolabelled RNA (representing nascent transcript) and purified RNA polymerase. After high salt wash the incorrect NTP is added and reaction is allowed to proceed for the various amounts of time. Reaction is stopped by addition of formamide-containing loading solution and the products are resolved on high-percentage denaturing polyacryamide
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