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Distinct requirements for C.elegans TAF II s in early embryonic transcription
Author(s) -
Walker Amy K.,
Rothman Joel H.,
Shi Yang,
Blackwell T.Keith
Publication year - 2001
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/20.18.5269
Subject(s) - biology , caenorhabditis elegans , embryonic stem cell , transcription (linguistics) , transcription factor , genetics , computational biology , microbiology and biotechnology , evolutionary biology , gene , linguistics , philosophy
TAF II s are conserved components of the TFIID, TFTC and SAGA‐related mRNA transcription complexes. In yeast (y), yTAF II 17 is required broadly for transcription, but various other TAF II s appear to have more specialized functions. It is important to determine how TAF II s contribute to transcription in metazoans, which have larger and more diverse genomes. We have examined TAF II functions in early Caenorhabditis elegans embryos, which can survive without transcription for several cell generations. We show that taf‐10 ( yTAF II 17 ) and taf‐11 ( yTAF II 25 ) are required for a significant fraction of transcription, but apparently are not needed for expression of multiple developmental and other metazoan‐specific genes. In contrast, taf‐5 ( yTAF II 48 ; human TAF II 130 ) seems to be required for essentially all early embryonic mRNA transcription. We conclude that TAF‐10 and TAF‐11 have modular functions in metazoans, and can be bypassed at many metazoan‐specific genes. The broad involvement of TAF‐5 in mRNA transcription in vivo suggests a requirement for either TFIID or a TFTC‐like complex.