Award-winning RNA Polymerase Illustration
This image of RNA Polymerase by RCSB PDB's Maria Voigt was selected as a national finalist in the 2019 Wiki Science Competition in the United States. The jury selected 36 finalists across six categories from 1,144 submissions. Subsequently, the image was selected the International Runner-Up.
RNA polymerase (purple) is a complex enzyme at the heart of transcription. During this process, the enzyme unwinds the DNA double helix and uses one strand (darker orange) as a template to create the single-stranded messenger RNA (green), later used by ribosomes for protein synthesis. From the RNA polymerase II elongation complex of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (PDB Structure 1i6h) as seen in PDB-101's What is a Protein? series.
