scholarly journals Purification and properties of a nuclear protein kinase associated with ribonucleic acid polymerase I

1978 ◽  
Vol 169 (2) ◽  
pp. 355-359 ◽  
Author(s):  
J Hirsch ◽  
O J Martelo

A cyclic AMP-dependent nuclear protein kinase was found to be closely associated with rat liver nucleolar RNA polymerase I throughout most of its purification. This protein kinase was purified to near homogeneity. It exhibits a number of unusual catalytic properties, including the inability to utilize Mn2+ when RNA polymerase is the substrate and the ability to phosphorylate both acidic and basic substrates. Phosphorylation of RNA polymerase I by this protein kinase results in the formation of phosphoester bonds characteristic of phosphoserine and phosphothreonine. Radioautography of polyacrylamide-gel electrophoretograms of the phosphorylated RNA polymerase I revealed that the 32P was located primarily on enzyme subunits SA1, SA3, SA5, and SA6 [nomenclature of Kedinger, Gissinger & Chambon (1974) Eur. J. Biochem, 44, 421-436].

1994 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 2011-2020
Author(s):  
P Labhart

Protein kinase(s) and protein phosphatase(s) present in a Xenopus S-100 transcription extract strongly influence promoter-dependent transcription by RNA polymerase I. The protein kinase inhibitor 6-dimethyl-aminopurine causes transcription to increase, while the protein phosphatase inhibitor okadaic acid causes transcription to decrease. Repression is also observed with inhibitor 2, and the addition of extra protein phosphatase 1 stimulates transcription, indicating that the endogenous phosphatase is a type 1 enzyme. Partial fractionation of the system, single-round transcription reactions, and kinetic experiments show that two different steps during ribosomal gene transcription are sensitive to protein phosphorylation: okadaic acid affects a step before or during transcription initiation, while 6-dimethylaminopurine stimulates a process "late" in the reaction, possibly reinitiation. The present results are a clear demonstration that transcription by RNA polymerase I can be regulated by protein phosphorylation.


The activities of the three DNA-dependent RNA polymerases from a rapidly growing rat tumour, Morris hepatoma 3924 A, and from rat liver were examined. The activity of RNA polymerase I was higher in the tumour than in the liver. The enhanced capacity for RNA synthesis was a result of a higher concentration of polymerase I in the tumour as well as of an activation of this enzyme vivo. The possibility that the high specific activity of the hepatoma polymerase I resulted from phosphorylation was investigated. Two major cyclic-AMP-independent nuclear casein kinases (NI and N il) were identified; the activity of protein kinase N il in the tumour was ten times that in liver. Protein kinase N il was capable of activating and phosphorylating RNA polymerase I in vitro . This kinase could also stimulate RNA polymerase II activity, although to a lesser extent than RNA polymerase I. RNA polymerase III was not affected by protein kinase NIL Protein kinase N il was tightly associated with polymerase I and was found even in purified preparations of the polymerase. Antibodies against both RNA polymerase I and protein kinase N il were present in sera of patients with certain rheumatic autoimmune diseases. These results imply that RNA polymerase I and protein kinase NIl are in close association in vivo as well as in vitro and that polymerase phosphorylation may regulate the rate of ribosomal RNA synthesis in the cell.


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