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Staf, a promiscuous activator for enhanced transcription by RNA polymerases II and III
Author(s) -
Schaub Myriam,
Myslinski Evelyne,
Schuster Catherine,
Krol Alain,
Carbon Philippe
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
the embo journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 7.484
H-Index - 392
eISSN - 1460-2075
pISSN - 0261-4189
DOI - 10.1093/emboj/16.1.173
Subject(s) - biology , small nuclear rna , rna polymerase ii , microbiology and biotechnology , snrnp , transcription (linguistics) , prp24 , gene , rna polymerase iii , rna , polymerase , promoter , rna polymerase , genetics , rna dependent rna polymerase , gene expression , rna splicing , linguistics , philosophy
Staf is a zinc finger protein that we recently identified as the transcriptional activator of the RNA polymerase III‐transcribed selenocysteine tRNA gene. In this work we demonstrate that enhanced transcription of the majority of vertebrate snRNA and snRNA‐type genes, transcribed by RNA polymerases II and III, also requires Staf. DNA binding assays and microinjection of mutant genes into Xenopus oocytes showed the presence of Staf‐responsive elements in the genes for human U4C, U6, Y4 and 7SK, Xenopus U1b1, U2, U5 and MRP and mouse U6 RNAs. Using recombinant Staf, we established that it mediates the activating properties of Staf‐responsive elements on RNA polymerase II and III snRNA promoters in vivo . Lastly a 19 bp consensus sequence for the Staf binding site, YY(A/T)CCC(A/G)N(A/C)AT(G/C)C(A/C)YYRCR, was derived by binding site selection. It enabled us to identify 23 other snRNA and snRNA‐type genes carrying potential Staf binding sites. Altogether, our results emphasize the prime importance of Staf as a novel activator for enhanced transcription of snRNA and snRNA‐type genes.