Preface/Front Matter

Abstract

Gene expression requires the transfer of genetic information from DNA into RNA molecules, the direct templates for protein synthesis. It is not surprizing, then, that since its discovery in 1959, the enzyme responsible for the synthesis of RNA on DNA templates has been of central interest in molecular biology. This volume is devoted entirely to work on DNA-dependent RNA polymerase.

Like previous books in this series, this one is in two parts. Part I provides an historical introduction, an overview of the transcription process and a series of reviews that outline the RNA polymerase field. Part II is, in the main, a collection of previously unpublished research articles. These are representative of reports presented at the 1975 Cold Spring Harbor meeting on RNA polymerase. Topics range in scope from the simple RNA polymerases of certain bacteriophages to the complex multisubunit transcriptases of eukaryotic cells, from mechanistic studies of promoter recognition to genetic studies of the interaction of RNA polymerase with regulatory proteins.

We thank Jim Watson, who suggested that we organize a conference on RNA polymerase and edit a volume based on that meeting. We thank the participants of the meeting, not all of whom could be represented here, for their critical ideas, which we hope have permeated the reviews, and for their help in reviewing the research articles. We also thank Helen Parker for her skillful assistance in coordinating the conference and Nancy Ford, Annette Zaninovic and other members of the publications office for their expert editing of this