scholarly journals Effect of low nucleotide concentrations on abortive elongation catalysed by wheat-germ RNA polymerase II

1987 ◽  
Vol 244 (1) ◽  
pp. 151-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
C Job ◽  
J Dietrich ◽  
D Shire ◽  
M Teissere ◽  
D Job

A kinetic study of the effect of elongating nucleotide concentration on the reactions of abortive elongation catalysed by wheat-germ RNA polymerase II on a poly[d(A-T)] template suggests that the shift from abortive to productive elongation may involve the participation of at least two nucleotides, according to a mechanism very similar to that reported for Escherichia coli RNA polymerase. Experiments performed with non-complementary nucleotides with respect to the DNA template, and with substrate derivatives, allow an analysis of the substrate specificity during these reactions. Similar experiments performed with poly[d(A-A-T)].poly[d(T-T-A)] as template provide a starting point for a better understanding of the effect of DNA sequence on the rates of abortive and productive elongation catalysed by the plant enzyme.

1986 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 1583-1597 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacques Dietrich ◽  
Marcel Teissere ◽  
Claudette Job ◽  
Dominique Job

1988 ◽  
Vol 253 (1) ◽  
pp. 281-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
C Job ◽  
L De Mercoyrol ◽  
D Job

Progress curves of U-A-primed RNA synthesis catalysed by wheat-germ RNA polymerase II on a poly[d(A-T)] template exhibit a slow burst of activity. In contrast, the progress curves of single-step addition of UMP to U-A primer in the abortive elongation reaction do not exhibit the slow burst of activity. The correlation between the kinetic transient in the productive pathway of RNA synthesis and the rate of abortive elongation is suggestive of the occurrence of a slow conformational change of the transcription complex during the transition from abortive to productive elongation. The exceptional duration of the transient burst (in the region of 4 min) may suggest a transition of a hysteretic type.


1989 ◽  
Vol 260 (3) ◽  
pp. 795-801 ◽  
Author(s):  
L De Mercoyrol ◽  
C Job ◽  
D Job

Incubation of purified wheat-germ RNA polymerase II with poly[d(A-T)] template, Mn2+, U-A dinucleoside monophosphate primer and UTP substrate resulted in catalytic formation of the trinucleoside diphosphate U-A-U, in accordance with the results of previous studies. Both Sarkosyl and heparin inhibited completely and immediately (within less than 1 min) U-A-U synthesis, if either of these compounds was added to the assays during the progress of the reaction. This behaviour is in marked contrast to that reported for single-step addition reactions catalysed by Escherichia coli RNA polymerase on the same template [Sylvester & Cashel (1980) Biochemistry 19, 1069-1074]. However, treatment of the transcription complexes with Sarkosyl or heparin for periods sufficient to abolish U-A-U formation completely did not suppress completely the ability of such complexes to elongate RNA chains. Hence, the effect of Sarkosyl or heparin on the rate of U-A-U synthesis was predominantly due to change in the rate (or in the mechanism) of trinucleotide product release by the transcription complexes. Furthermore, once U-A-U synthesis has begun on the poly[d(A-T)] template, the transcription complexes became resistant to the action of a competitor DNA such as poly[d(G-C)]. The results are consistent with a model where at least a sizeable fraction of the enzyme molecules remains associated with the DNA template upon formation of a single phosphodiester bond.


1990 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 1908-1914
Author(s):  
C Martin ◽  
S Okamura ◽  
R Young

The two large subunits of RNA polymerase II, RPB1 and RPB2, contain regions of extensive homology to the two large subunits of Escherichia coli RNA polymerase. These homologous regions may represent separate protein domains with unique functions. We investigated whether suppressor genetics could provide evidence for interactions between specific segments of RPB1 and RPB2 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. A plasmid shuffle method was used to screen thoroughly for mutations in RPB2 that suppress a temperature-sensitive mutation, rpb1-1, which is located in region H of RPB1. All six RPB2 mutations that suppress rpb1-1 were clustered in region I of RPB2. The location of these mutations and the observation that they were allele specific for suppression of rpb1-1 suggests an interaction between region H of RPB1 and region I of RPB2. A similar experiment was done to isolate and map mutations in RPB1 that suppress a temperature-sensitive mutation, rpb2-2, which occurs in region I of RPB2. These suppressor mutations were not clustered in a particular region. Thus, fine structure suppressor genetics can provide evidence for interactions between specific segments of two proteins, but the results of this type of analysis can depend on the conditional mutation to be suppressed.


1993 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 4214-4222
Author(s):  
Y Chen ◽  
J Weeks ◽  
M A Mortin ◽  
A L Greenleaf

We have mapped a number of mutations at the DNA sequence level in genes encoding the largest (RpII215) and second-largest (RpII140) subunits of Drosophila melanogaster RNA polymerase II. Using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification and single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) analysis, we detected 12 mutations from 14 mutant alleles (86%) as mobility shifts in nondenaturing gel electrophoresis, thus localizing the mutations to the corresponding PCR fragments of about 350 bp. We then determined the mutations at the DNA sequence level by directly subcloning the PCR fragments and sequencing them. The five mapped RpII140 mutations clustered in a C-terminal portion of the second-largest subunit, indicating the functional importance of this region of the subunit. The RpII215 mutations were distributed more broadly, although six of eight clustered in a central region of the subunit. One notable mutation that we localized to this region was the alpha-amanitin-resistant mutation RpII215C4, which also affects RNA chain elongation in vitro. RpII215C4 mapped to a position near the sites of corresponding mutations in mouse and in Caenorhabditis elegans genes, reinforcing the idea that this region is involved in amatoxin binding and transcript elongation. We also mapped mutations in both RpII215 and RpII140 that cause a developmental defect known as the Ubx effect. The clustering of these mutations in each gene suggests that they define functional domains in each subunit whose alteration induces the mutant phenotype.


1994 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 415-419
Author(s):  
M Radłowski ◽  
D Job

The effect of disulfide and sulfhydryl reagents on the rate of abortive and productive elongation has been studied using Escherichia coli RNA polymerase holoenzyme and poly[d(A-T)] as template. In the presence of UTP as a single substrate and UpA as a primer, the enzyme catalyzed efficiently the synthesis of the trinucleotide product UpApU. Incubation of RNA polymerase with 1 mM 2-mercaptoethanol resulted in a 5-fold increase of the rate of UpApU synthesis. In contrast, incubation of the enzyme with 1 mM 5,5'-dithio-bis(2-nitrobenzoic) acid resulted in a 6-fold decrease of the rate of abortive elongation. Determination of the steady state kinetic constants associated with UpApU synthesis disclosed that the disulfide and sulfhydryl reagents mainly affected the rate of UpApU release from the ternary transcription complexes and therefore influenced the stability of such complexes.


2009 ◽  
Vol 425 (2) ◽  
pp. 373-380 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabine Wenzel ◽  
Berta M. Martins ◽  
Paul Rösch ◽  
Birgitta M. Wöhrl

The eukaryotic transcription elongation factor DSIF [DRB (5,6-dichloro-1-β-D-ribofuranosylbenzimidazole) sensitivity-inducing factor] is composed of two subunits, hSpt4 and hSpt5, which are homologous to the yeast factors Spt4 and Spt5. DSIF is involved in regulating the processivity of RNA polymerase II and plays an essential role in transcriptional activation of eukaryotes. At several eukaryotic promoters, DSIF, together with NELF (negative elongation factor), leads to promoter-proximal pausing of RNA polymerase II. In the present paper we describe the crystal structure of hSpt4 in complex with the dimerization region of hSpt5 (amino acids 176–273) at a resolution of 1.55 Å (1 Å=0.1 nm). The heterodimer shows high structural similarity to its homologue from Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Furthermore, hSpt5-NGN is structurally similar to the NTD (N-terminal domain) of the bacterial transcription factor NusG. A homologue for hSpt4 has not yet been found in bacteria. However, the archaeal transcription factor RpoE” appears to be distantly related. Although a comparison of the NusG-NTD of Escherichia coli with hSpt5 revealed a similarity of the three-dimensional structures, interaction of E. coli NusG-NTD with hSpt4 could not be observed by NMR titration experiments. A conserved glutamate residue, which was shown to be crucial for dimerization in yeast, is also involved in the human heterodimer, but is substituted for a glutamine residue in Escherichia coli NusG. However, exchanging the glutamine for glutamate proved not to be sufficient to induce hSpt4 binding.


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