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Extra‐transcriptional effects of RNA polymerase III transcription complex on neighboring RNA polymerase II transcribing genes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Author(s) -
Korde Asawari,
Rosselot Jessica M.,
Donze David
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.27.1_supplement.980.8
Subject(s) - rna polymerase iii , rna polymerase ii , transcription (linguistics) , biology , chromatin , transcription factor ii d , genetics , rna polymerase i , promoter , rna polymerase ii holoenzyme , rna polymerase , rna , gene , transcription factor ii f , saccharomyces cerevisiae , microbiology and biotechnology , gene expression , linguistics , philosophy
RNA polymerase III (Pol III) transcribes tRNAs, 5S RNA and other non‐coding RNAs. Moreover, Pol III transcription complexes (TFIIIC, TFIIIB and Pol III) assembled on DNA can exert extra‐transcriptional effects on chromosome function. Transfer RNA genes (tDNAs) can act as chromatin boundaries in yeast. In S. cerevisiae , a tDNA tV(UAC)D ( tVD ) lies between divergently transcribed ATG31 and SES1 genes. Higher levels of SES1 transcription relative to ATG31 led us to speculate an insulator function of tVD, that prevents activation of ATG31 transcription by SES1 regulatory elements. RNA analysis of tVD deleted strains revealed increased ATG31 transcripts and surprisingly a longer ATG31 transcript. This extended ATG31 mRNA is due to readthrough of the untranslated transcript SUT467 originating near the SES1 promoter. We show that tVD blocks progression of this intergenic transcript, suggesting a unique barrier function. Western blots show reduced translation of ATG31 in tVD deleted strains. The readthrough transcript is also observed in yeast containing mutations in the Pol III machinery and other chromatin proteins associated with tDNAs. Our results indicate that in addition to the boundary activity, Pol III complexes, with other chromatin proteins at tDNAs, can function as barriers to Pol II progression, which may be important in protecting promoters from deleterious effects of cryptic intergenic transcription.