title: Stochastic resetting in backtrack recovery by RNA polymerases.
abstract: Transcription is a key process in gene expression, in which RNA polymerases produce a complementary RNA copy from a DNA template. RNA polymerization is frequently interrupted by backtracking, a process in which polymerases perform a random walk along the DNA template. Recovery of polymerases from the transcriptionally inactive backtracked state is determined by a kinetic competition between one-dimensional diffusion and RNA cleavage. Here we describe backtrack recovery as a continuous-time random walk, where the time for a polymerase to recover from a backtrack of a given depth is described as a first-passage time of a random walker to reach an absorbing state. We represent RNA cleavage as a stochastic resetting process and derive exact expressions for the recovery time distributions and mean recovery times from a given initial backtrack depth for both continuous and discrete-lattice descriptions of the random walk. We show that recovery time statistics do not depend on the discreteness of the DNA lattice when the rate of one-dimensional diffusion is large compared to the rate of cleavage.
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Nöthnitzer Strasse 38, 01187 Dresden, Germany.|Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden, cfaed, Dresden, Germany.|GISC - Grupo Interdisciplinar de Sistemas Complejos, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Édgar
authors.initials: É
authors.lastname: Roldán
authors.affiliation: BIOTEC, Technische Universität Dresden, Tatzberg 47/49, 01307 Dresden, Germany.|Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Pfotenhauerstraße 108, 01307 Dresden, Germany.
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lisica
authors.affiliation: Regenerative Medicine Program, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada K1H 8L6.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Sánchez-Taltavull
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Nöthnitzer Strasse 38, 01187 Dresden, Germany.|BIOTEC, Technische Universität Dresden, Tatzberg 47/49, 01307 Dresden, Germany.|Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Pfotenhauerstraße 108, 01307 Dresden, Germany.
authors.forename: Stephan W
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Grill
mesh_terms: D012321:DNA-Directed RNA Polymerases / Q000378:metabolism*; D007700:Kinetics; D008954:Models, Biological; D012313:RNA / Q000378:metabolism; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
chemical_list: D012313:RNA; D012321:DNA-Directed RNA Polymerases