Genetics & Biology · The Living Address · Paper 4 of 23

RNA Polymerase and Transcription Initiation

The Reading Head

Reading the address · the σ selector · the 36,000 α subunit · one register clock

Stephen Daubney · The Daubney Foundation

RNA polymerase = the reading headα subunit MW = 36,000σ selects the promoter2α : 1β : 1β′

The biology

Transcription is a cycle: RNA polymerase binds a promoter, initiates, elongates, and terminates. Bacteria have one polymerase; the holoenzyme is σα₂ββ′ω — two α subunits of MW 36,000 each, a large β and β′, and a σ factor that selects the promoter and is released after initiation. Eukaryotes have three polymerases for the three classes of RNA.

The head that reads the coordinate

The polymerase is the reading head that runs along the address and transcribes it. That it is built large — half a million in mass where a phage manages with a tenth of that — buys the variety and regulation a coordinate system needs: many promoters, many σ selectors, each a way of choosing which part of the address to read. The α subunit's mass sits on 36,000 — the number 36 that recurs across the lattice, from the base-pair rotation to the Balmer limit.

THE READING
σ is the selector that points the reading head at one address among thousands; initiation is the choice of what to read, and the choice is where regulation lives.

Where this departs from current science

Current science saysThe Force of Time says
The polymerase is a catalytic enzyme that happens to be large.Its size buys the promoter variety a coordinate system needs — reading is selection among addresses.
Subunit masses are arbitrary evolutionary values.The α subunit sits on 36,000; 36 recurs across the {2,3,5,π} lattice.

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The same single substance — time — writes the address of a cell, the wavelength of a spectral line, and the orbit of a planet. If this stirred your curiosity, the whole weave is waiting.

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