Cover: Virulence regulator of E. coli and related bacteria, RfaH, is a transcription elongation factor that stimulates the expression of distal genes in several operons encoding hemolysin, O-antigen, and other extracytoplasmic macromolecules, important for pathogenicity. The article by Svetlov et al. describes the allosteric mechanism by which RfaH (shown here in green) suppresses pausing by the bacterial transcription elongation complex (RNA polymerase shown in grey, nucleic acid chains in blue, red (both - DNA), and yellow (RNA)). For further details, including the effects of amino acid substitutions in RNA polymerase (shown as colored spheres) on RfaH function, see the article by Svetlov et al. (Nucleic Acids Res. (2007) 35, 5694–5705).
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