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. 2022;2533:63–70. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-2501-9_4

Specialization of RNA Polymerase I in Comparison to Other Nuclear RNA Polymerases of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Philipp E Merkl, Christopher Schächner, Michael Pilsl, Katrin Schwank, Catharina Schmid, Gernot Längst, Philipp Milkereit, Joachim Griesenbeck, Herbert Tschochner
PMCID: PMC9761553  PMID: 35796982

Abstract

In archaea and bacteria the major classes of RNAs are synthesized by one DNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RNAP). In contrast, most eukaryotes have three highly specialized RNAPs to transcribe the nuclear genome. RNAP I synthesizes almost exclusively ribosomal (r)RNA, RNAP II synthesizes mRNA as well as many noncoding RNAs involved in RNA processing or RNA silencing pathways and RNAP III synthesizes mainly tRNA and 5S rRNA. This review discusses functional differences of the three nuclear core RNAPs in the yeast S. cerevisiae with a particular focus on RNAP I transcription of nucleolar ribosomal (r)DNA chromatin.

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