Question

You work for a pharmaceutical company and discover a chemical compound with antibiotic properties. When this chemical is added to E. coli, the bacteria stop producing full-length mRNAs and instead accumulate short transcripts of 8-10 nucleotides in length. Which of the following steps in transcription is most likely affected by the drug?a. Elongation rate of the core polymeraseb. Binding to the promoterc. Formation of the open complexd. Promoter clearancee. Rho-dependent termination

Answer 1

a. Elongation rate of the core polymerase

Step-by-step explanation:

The chemical added to the E. coli made it stop it's full length production of mRNAs but instead short nucleotide transcript because the chemical targeted the elongation rate of the polymerase enzyme.