Skip to main content
PMC home page
Nucleic Acids Research logoLink to Nucleic Acids Research
. 1989 May 11;17(9):3403–3413. doi: 10.1093/nar/17.9.3403

Unusual C-terminal domain of the largest subunit of RNA polymerase II of Crithidia fasciculata.

R Evers 1, A Hammer 1, A W Cornelissen 1
PMCID: PMC317783  PMID: 2726483

Abstract

The C-terminal domain of the largest subunit of RNA polymerase II in higher eukaryotes is present in the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma brucei in a strongly modified form. To determine whether this is a general feature of the Kinetoplastida and to determine the role of this domain in RNA polymerase II transcription, we have analysed the C-terminal domain of the distantly related species Crithidia fasciculata. No positional identity of amino acid residues between the C-termini of C. fasciculata and T. brucei can be found. Moreover, both domains lack the heptapeptide repeat structure present in higher eukaryotes. The two domains are, however, very similar in amino acid composition, being rich in acidic residues as well as serine and tryosine. The latter observation is compatible with the concept that in vivo phosphorylation of the C-terminus activates RNA polymerase II.

Full text

PDF
3404

Images in this article

3404Image
on p.3404

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Ahearn J. M., Jr, Bartolomei M. S., West M. L., Cisek L. J., Corden J. L. Cloning and sequence analysis of the mouse genomic locus encoding the largest subunit of RNA polymerase II. J Biol Chem. 1987 Aug 5;262(22):10695–10705. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Allison L. A., Moyle M., Shales M., Ingles C. J. Extensive homology among the largest subunits of eukaryotic and prokaryotic RNA polymerases. Cell. 1985 Sep;42(2):599–610. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(85)90117-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Allison L. A., Wong J. K., Fitzpatrick V. D., Moyle M., Ingles C. J. The C-terminal domain of the largest subunit of RNA polymerase II of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Drosophila melanogaster, and mammals: a conserved structure with an essential function. Mol Cell Biol. 1988 Jan;8(1):321–329. doi: 10.1128/mcb.8.1.321. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Auffray C., Rougeon F. Purification of mouse immunoglobulin heavy-chain messenger RNAs from total myeloma tumor RNA. Eur J Biochem. 1980 Jun;107(2):303–314. doi: 10.1111/j.1432-1033.1980.tb06030.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Bartholomew B., Dahmus M. E., Meares C. F. RNA contacts subunits IIo and IIc in HeLa RNA polymerase II transcription complexes. J Biol Chem. 1986 Oct 25;261(30):14226–14231. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Bartolomei M. S., Halden N. F., Cullen C. R., Corden J. L. Genetic analysis of the repetitive carboxyl-terminal domain of the largest subunit of mouse RNA polymerase II. Mol Cell Biol. 1988 Jan;8(1):330–339. doi: 10.1128/mcb.8.1.330. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Biggin M. D., Gibson T. J., Hong G. F. Buffer gradient gels and 35S label as an aid to rapid DNA sequence determination. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1983 Jul;80(13):3963–3965. doi: 10.1073/pnas.80.13.3963. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Birnboim H. C., Doly J. A rapid alkaline extraction procedure for screening recombinant plasmid DNA. Nucleic Acids Res. 1979 Nov 24;7(6):1513–1523. doi: 10.1093/nar/7.6.1513. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Buratowski S., Hahn S., Sharp P. A., Guarente L. Function of a yeast TATA element-binding protein in a mammalian transcription system. Nature. 1988 Jul 7;334(6177):37–42. doi: 10.1038/334037a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Cadena D. L., Dahmus M. E. Messenger RNA synthesis in mammalian cells is catalyzed by the phosphorylated form of RNA polymerase II. J Biol Chem. 1987 Sep 15;262(26):12468–12474. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Cavallini B., Huet J., Plassat J. L., Sentenac A., Egly J. M., Chambon P. A yeast activity can substitute for the HeLa cell TATA box factor. Nature. 1988 Jul 7;334(6177):77–80. doi: 10.1038/334077a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Corden J. L., Cadena D. L., Ahearn J. M., Jr, Dahmus M. E. A unique structure at the carboxyl terminus of the largest subunit of eukaryotic RNA polymerase II. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1985 Dec;82(23):7934–7938. doi: 10.1073/pnas.82.23.7934. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Cornelissen A. W., Evers R., Köck J. Structure and sequence of genes encoding subunits of eukaryotic RNA polymerases. Oxf Surv Eukaryot Genes. 1988;5:91–131. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Dente L., Cesareni G., Cortese R. pEMBL: a new family of single stranded plasmids. Nucleic Acids Res. 1983 Mar 25;11(6):1645–1655. doi: 10.1093/nar/11.6.1645. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Gill G., Ptashne M. Mutants of GAL4 protein altered in an activation function. Cell. 1987 Oct 9;51(1):121–126. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(87)90016-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Hoeijmakers J. H., Borst P., van den Burg J., Weissmann C., Cross G. A. The isolation of plasmids containing DNA complementary to messenger RNA for variant surface glycoproteins of Trypanosoma brucei. Gene. 1980 Mar;8(4):391–417. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(80)90043-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Hopp T. P., Woods K. R. Prediction of protein antigenic determinants from amino acid sequences. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1981 Jun;78(6):3824–3828. doi: 10.1073/pnas.78.6.3824. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Horikoshi M., Carey M. F., Kakidani H., Roeder R. G. Mechanism of action of a yeast activator: direct effect of GAL4 derivatives on mammalian TFIID-promoter interactions. Cell. 1988 Aug 26;54(5):665–669. doi: 10.1016/s0092-8674(88)80011-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Kim W. Y., Dahmus M. E. Immunochemical analysis of mammalian RNA polymerase II subspecies. Stability and relative in vivo concentration. J Biol Chem. 1986 Oct 25;261(30):14219–14225. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Köck J., Evers R., Cornelissen A. W. Structure and sequence of the gene for the largest subunit of trypanosomal RNA polymerase III. Nucleic Acids Res. 1988 Sep 26;16(18):8753–8772. doi: 10.1093/nar/16.18.8753. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Lake J. A., de la Cruz V. F., Ferreira P. C., Morel C., Simpson L. Evolution of parasitism: kinetoplastid protozoan history reconstructed from mitochondrial rRNA gene sequences. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1988 Jul;85(13):4779–4783. doi: 10.1073/pnas.85.13.4779. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Ma J., Ptashne M. Deletion analysis of GAL4 defines two transcriptional activating segments. Cell. 1987 Mar 13;48(5):847–853. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(87)90081-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Maxam A. M., Gilbert W. Sequencing end-labeled DNA with base-specific chemical cleavages. Methods Enzymol. 1980;65(1):499–560. doi: 10.1016/s0076-6879(80)65059-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Nonet M., Sweetser D., Young R. A. Functional redundancy and structural polymorphism in the large subunit of RNA polymerase II. Cell. 1987 Sep 11;50(6):909–915. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(87)90517-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Ptashne M. How eukaryotic transcriptional activators work. Nature. 1988 Oct 20;335(6192):683–689. doi: 10.1038/335683a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. Queen C., Korn L. J. A comprehensive sequence analysis program for the IBM personal computer. Nucleic Acids Res. 1984 Jan 11;12(1 Pt 2):581–599. doi: 10.1093/nar/12.1part2.581. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  27. Rigby P. W., Dieckmann M., Rhodes C., Berg P. Labeling deoxyribonucleic acid to high specific activity in vitro by nick translation with DNA polymerase I. J Mol Biol. 1977 Jun 15;113(1):237–251. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(77)90052-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  28. Sanger F., Nicklen S., Coulson A. R. DNA sequencing with chain-terminating inhibitors. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1977 Dec;74(12):5463–5467. doi: 10.1073/pnas.74.12.5463. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  29. Sentenac A. Eukaryotic RNA polymerases. CRC Crit Rev Biochem. 1985;18(1):31–90. doi: 10.3109/10409238509082539. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  30. Sigler P. B. Transcriptional activation. Acid blobs and negative noodles. Nature. 1988 May 19;333(6170):210–212. doi: 10.1038/333210a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  31. Sloof P., Van den Burg J., Voogd A., Benne R., Agostinelli M., Borst P., Gutell R., Noller H. Further characterization of the extremely small mitochondrial ribosomal RNAs from trypanosomes: a detailed comparison of the 9S and 12S RNAs from Crithidia fasciculata and Trypanosoma brucei with rRNAs from other organisms. Nucleic Acids Res. 1985 Jun 11;13(11):4171–4190. doi: 10.1093/nar/13.11.4171. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  32. Sogin M. L., Elwood H. J., Gunderson J. H. Evolutionary diversity of eukaryotic small-subunit rRNA genes. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1986 Mar;83(5):1383–1387. doi: 10.1073/pnas.83.5.1383. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  33. Southern E. M. Detection of specific sequences among DNA fragments separated by gel electrophoresis. J Mol Biol. 1975 Nov 5;98(3):503–517. doi: 10.1016/s0022-2836(75)80083-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  34. Swinkels B. W., Evers R., Borst P. The topogenic signal of the glycosomal (microbody) phosphoglycerate kinase of Crithidia fasciculata resides in a carboxy-terminal extension. EMBO J. 1988 Apr;7(4):1159–1165. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1988.tb02926.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  35. Van der Ploeg L. H., Liu A. Y., Michels P. A., De Lange T., Borst P., Majumder H. K., Weber H., Veeneman G. H., Van Boom J. RNA splicing is required to make the messenger RNA for a variant surface antigen in trypanosomes. Nucleic Acids Res. 1982 Jun 25;10(12):3591–3604. doi: 10.1093/nar/10.12.3591. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  36. Webster N. J., Green S., Jin J. R., Chambon P. The hormone-binding domains of the estrogen and glucocorticoid receptors contain an inducible transcription activation function. Cell. 1988 Jul 15;54(2):199–207. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(88)90552-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  37. Webster N., Jin J. R., Green S., Hollis M., Chambon P. The yeast UASG is a transcriptional enhancer in human HeLa cells in the presence of the GAL4 trans-activator. Cell. 1988 Jan 29;52(2):169–178. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(88)90505-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  38. Zehring W. A., Lee J. M., Weeks J. R., Jokerst R. S., Greenleaf A. L. The C-terminal repeat domain of RNA polymerase II largest subunit is essential in vivo but is not required for accurate transcription initiation in vitro. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1988 Jun;85(11):3698–3702. doi: 10.1073/pnas.85.11.3698. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Nucleic Acids Research are provided here courtesy of Oxford University Press

RESOURCES