The dissociation of sigma-factor from ribonucleic acid polymerase.

The sigma-factor of Escherichia coli RNA polymerase was shown to dissociate from the core enzyme as a function of absolute concentration. The association constant is in the range 10(6)-10(8) litre/mol. This implies that the amount of holoenzyme, core enzyme and sigma-factor in RNA polymerase assays may vary according to the absolute concentration of the enzyme.