Abstract
THE carboxy-terminal domain (CTD) of the large subunit of RNA polymerase II is essential in vivo1–4, and is found in either an unphosphorylated (Ha) or hyperphosphorylated (Ho) form5,6. The Drosophila uninduced hsp70 and hsp26 genes, and the constitutively expressed β-1 tubulin and Gapdh-2 genes, contain an RNA polymerase II complex which pauses after synthesizing a short transcript7–10. We report here that, using an in vivo ultraviolet crosslinking technique11 and antibodies directed against the I la and IIo forms of the CTD12, these paused polymerases have an unphosphorylated CTD. For genes containing a 5' paused polymerase, passage of the paused RNA polymerase into an elongationally competent mode in vivo coincides with phosphorylation of the CTD. Also, the level of phosphorylation of the CTD of elongating polymerases is shown not to be related to the level of transcription, but is promoter specific.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Zehring, W. A., Lee, J. M., Weeks, J. R., Jokerst, R. S. & Greenleaf, A. L. Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. USA. 85, 3698–3702 (1988).
Nonet, M., Sweetser, D. & Young, R. A. Cell 50, 909–915 (1987).
Allison, L. A., Wong, J. J.-C., Fitzpatrick, V. D., Moyle, M. & Ingles, C. J. Molec. cell. Biol. 8, 321–329 (1988).
Bartolomei, M. S., Halden, N. F., Cullen, C. R. & Corden, J. L. Molec. cell. Biol. 8, 330–339 (1988).
Cadena, D. L. & Dahmus, M. E. J. biol. Chem. 262, 12468–12474 (1987).
Kolodzeij, P. A., Woychik, N., Liao, S.-M. & Young, R. A. Molec. cell. Biol. 10, 1915–1920 (1990).
Giardina, C., Perez-Riba, M. & Lis, J. T. Genes Dev. 6, 2190–2200 (1992).
Rasmussen, E. B. & Lis, J. T. Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 90, 7923–7927 (1993).
Rougvie, A. E. & Lis, J. T. Cell 54, 795–804 (1988).
Rougvie, A. E. & Lis, J. T. Molec. cell. Biol. 10, 6041–6045 (1990).
Gilmour, D. S., Rougvie, A. E. & Lis, J. T. in Methods in Cell Biology (eds Hamkalo, B. A. & Elgin, S. C. R.) 369–381 (Academic, San Diego, 1991).
Weeks, J. R., Hardin, S. E., Shen, J., Lee, J. M. & Greenleaf, A. L. Genes Dev. 7, 2329–2344 (1993).
O'Brien, T. & Lis, J. T. Molec. cell. Biol. 11, 5285–5290 (1991).
Laybourn, P. J. & Dahmus, M. E. J. biol. Chem. 264, 6693–6698 (1989).
Lu, H., Flores, O., Weinmann, R. & Reinberg, D. Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 88, 10004–10008 (1991).
Payne, J. M., Laybourn, P. J. & Dahmus, M. E. J. biol. Chem. 264, 19621–19629 (1989).
Usheva, A. et al. Cell 69, 871–881 (1992).
Koleske, A. J., Buratowski, S., Nonet, M. & Young, R. A. Cell 69, 883–894 (1992).
Thompson, C. M., Koleske, A. J., Chao, D. M. & Young, R. A. Cell 73, 1361–1375 (1993).
Rougvie, A. E. thesis, Cornell Univ. Ithaca, New York (1989).
Hackett, R. W. & Lis, J. T. Nucleic Acids Res. 11, 7011–7030 (1983).
Lifton, R. P., Goldberg, M. L., Karp, R. W. & Hogness, D. S. Cold Spring Harb. Symp. quant. Biol. 42, 1047–1051 (1977).
O'Brien, T. & Lis, J. T. Molec. cell. Biol. 13, 3456–3463 (1993).
Weeks, J. R., Coulter, D. E. & Greenleaf, A. L. J. biol. Chem. 257, 5884–5891 (1982).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
O'Brien, T., Hardin, S., Greenleaf, A. et al. Phosphorylation of RNA polymerase II C-terminal domain and transcriptional elongation. Nature 370, 75–77 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1038/370075a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/370075a0
This article is cited by
-
XRCC1 protects transcription from toxic PARP1 activity during DNA base excision repair
Nature Cell Biology (2021)
-
Novel role of CAP1 in regulation RNA polymerase II-mediated transcription elongation depends on its actin-depolymerization activity in nucleoplasm
Oncogene (2021)
-
The splicing factor SC35 has an active role in transcriptional elongation
Nature Structural & Molecular Biology (2008)
-
Actin and hnRNP U cooperate for productive transcription by RNA polymerase II
Nature Structural & Molecular Biology (2005)
-
In vivo characterization of regulatory polymorphisms by allele-specific quantification of RNA polymerase loading
Nature Genetics (2003)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.