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Fidaxomicin is an antibacterial drug in clinical use in treatment of Clostridium difficile diarrhea. The active pharmaceutical ingredient of fidaxomicin, lipiarmycin A3 (Lpm), is a macrocyclic antibiotic with bactericidal activity against Gram-positive bacteria and efflux-deficient strains of Gram-negative bacteria. Lpm functions by inhibiting bacterial RNA polymerase (RNAP). Lpm exhibits no cross-resistance with the classic RNAP inhibitor rifampin (Rif) and inhibits transcription initiation at an earlier step than Rif, suggesting that the binding site and mechanism of Lpm differ from those of Rif. Efforts spanning a decade to obtain a crystal structure of RNAP in complex with Lpm have been unsuccessful. Here, we report a cryo-EM structure of Mycobacterium tuberculosis RNAP holoenzyme in complex with Lpm at 3.5 A resolution. The structure shows that Lpm binds at the base of the RNAP "clamp," interacting with the RNAP switch region and the RNAP RNA exit channel. The binding site on RNAP for Lpm does not overlap the binding sites for other RNAP inhibitors, accounting for the absence of cross-resistance of Lpm with other RNAP inhibitors. The structure exhibits an open conformation of the RNAP clamp, with the RNAP clamp swung outward by ~17 degrees relative to its position in catalytically competent RNAP-promoter transcription initiation complexes, suggesting that Lpm traps an open-clamp conformational state. Single-molecule fluorescence resonance energy transfer experiments confirm that Lpm traps an open-clamp conformational state and define effects of Lpm on clamp opening and closing dynamics. We propose that Lpm inhibits transcription initiation by trapping an open-clamp conformational state, thereby preventing simultaneous engagement of transcription initiation factor σ regions 2 and 4 with promoter -10 and -35 elements. The results provide information essential to understanding the mode of action of Lpm, account for structure-activity relationships of known Lpm analogs, and suggest modifications to Lpm that could yield new, improved Lpm analogs.

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