Transcription Factors Prominently in Lasker Award to Roeder

for example, did eukaryotic cells have three RNA poly-merases and what were the specific functions of each of these enzymes? Clues to some of these mysteries came later in Bob's graduate work, when he found that At 9AM on a Saturday morning in the Fall of 1985, we made our way to the 15 th floor of Rockefeller University's RNA polymerase I was localized to the nucleolus, while polymerases II and III were found in the nucleoplasm Tower Building. The event was one of two weekly science meetings for members of the laboratory of Robert (Roeder and Rutter, 1970). As Bob would later demonstrate , this localization reflected the primary roles of G. Roeder. The purpose of this meeting was to motivate the troops and inspire all of us to higher levels of effort each RNA polymerase. and productivity. In the course of the next couple of hours, Bob checked that the i's were dotted in our exper-Chapter 1: Distinct Functions for the Three imental methodology and t's crossed in its execution. RNA Polymerases To illustrate how science is best done, he then recounted Following a postdoctoral stint in Don Brown's lab at the details of his discovery of the three forms of eukaryotic Carnegie Institute in Washington, Bob established his DNA-dependent RNA polymerases in the wee hours of own lab at Washington University in St. Louis in 1971 one cold February morning in 1969. The story goes that, and devoted his group to purification of the three RNA as a graduate student, Bob called his advisor multiple polymerases. In early studies, Virgil Sklar and Tony times during the night to report the discovery and the Schwartz compared the apparent subunit composition salt concentration optimums of each enzyme. Many of of each purified polymerase and found that, while some us who spent portions of our formative years in Bob's subunits were shared, most were specific to each poly-lab do not find this story difficult to believe. We were merase (Sklar et al., 1975). Thus, the three forms of RNA clearly awed by his example of how hard work and polymerase originally identified by chromatography did dedication can lead to a bona fide " eureka, " and fre-not simply represent variants of the same basic enzyme. quently hoped that our own experiments would produce However, since all three catalyze the same reaction, similar excitement. Nevertheless, we would probably there must be …