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Review
. 2001 Jul 1;29(13):2675-90.
doi: 10.1093/nar/29.13.2675.

Comparison of the RNA polymerase III transcription machinery in Schizosaccharomyces pombe, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and human

Y Huang  1 , R J Maraia
Affiliations
Review

Comparison of the RNA polymerase III transcription machinery in Schizosaccharomyces pombe, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and human

Y Huang et al. Nucleic Acids Res. .

Erratum in

  • Nucleic Acids Res 2001 Aug 15;29(16):2

Abstract

Multi-subunit transcription factors (TF) direct RNA polymerase (pol) III to synthesize a variety of essential small transcripts such as tRNAs, 5S rRNA and U6 snRNA. Use by pol III of both TATA-less and TATA-containing promoters, together with progress in the Saccharomyces cerevisiae and human systems towards elucidating the mechanisms of actions of the pol III TFs, provides a paradigm for eukaryotic gene transcription. Human and S.cerevisiae pol III components reveal good general agreement in the arrangement of orthologous TFs that are distributed along tRNA gene control elements, beginning upstream of the transcription initiation site and extending through the 3' terminator element, although some TF subunits have diverged beyond recognition. For this review we have surveyed the Schizosaccharomyces pombe database and identified 26 subunits of pol III and associated TFs that would appear to represent the complete core set of the pol III machinery. We also compile data that indicate in vivo expression and/or function of 18 of the fission yeast proteins. A high degree of homology occurs in pol III, TFIIIB, TFIIIA and the three initiation-related subunits of TFIIIC that are associated with the proximal promoter element, while markedly less homology is apparent in the downstream TFIIIC subunits. The idea that the divergence in downstream TFIIIC subunits is associated with differences in pol III termination-related mechanisms that have been noted in the yeast and human systems but not reviewed previously is also considered.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Highly schematized cartoon of TFs assembled onto a tRNA gene (3) that also reflects the relative evolutionary conservation of individual TFIIIB and TFIIIC subunits, as described in the text. For most of the subunits the nomenclature follows that for S.cerevisiae (4). The positions of the A box and B box promoter elements are indicated. The arrow indicates the direction and site of initiation of transcription. T indicates the site of transcription termination. The minimal numbers of T sites required for efficient termination by S.cerevisiae (6, S. c.), S.pombe (5, S. p.) and human (4, H. s.) pols III are indicated schematically (8).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Alignment of TBPs from S.cerevisiae, S.pombe and human. The alignment was performed by Clustal W (177). Asterisks designate residues involved in Brf interaction and dots designate residues involved in DNA binding. Inverted triangles designate the residues, which have been determined to be important for TBP interaction with Brf, but are not conserved, as described in the text.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Alignment of Brf from S.cerevisiae, S.pombe and human, performed by Clustal W (177).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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