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Query: EC:2.7.7.6 (RNA polymerase)
 34,946 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

In response to heat-shock and chemical treatments, cells undergo profound biochemical changes such as modifications in protein phosphorylation in order to resist the new, unfavorable growth conditions. We have previously shown that in HeLa cells a protein kinase (HS-CTD kinase) activity is induced rapidly after a heat or sodium arsenite shock. This kinase activity is able to phosphorylate a synthetic peptide composed of four repeats of the motif Ser-Pro-Thr-Ser-Pro-Ser-Tyr, a motif highly repeated in the carboxyl-terminal domain (CTD) of the largest subunit of eukaryotic RNA polymerase II. In this paper, we designed a new experimental procedure to characterize the substrate specificity of this kinase activity. We show that HS-CTD kinase activity phosphorylates a consensus sequence (-P-X-S/T-P-) which is similar to the sequence phosphorylated by extracellular regulated protein kinases (also called mitogen-activated protein kinases). However, there is a slight but reproducible difference between these kinases in their use of serine or threonine as the phosphate acceptor. Mono Q chromatography allows the separation of five stress-induced CTD kinase activities, two of which coelute with active mitogen-activated protein kinase forms revealed by Western blotting with anti ERK1-ERK2 antibodies. The other three CTD kinase activities induced after a stress are distinct from ERK1 and ERK2 and have different enzymatic properties. The molecular nature of these HS-CTD kinases and the physiological significance of their activation during stress remain to be determined.
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PMID:Different carboxyl-terminal domain kinase activities are induced by heat-shock and arsenite. Characterization of their substrate specificity, separation by Mono Q chromatography, and comparison with the mitogen-activated protein kinases. 776 4

The RNA polymerase II large subunit contains an essential carboxy-terminal domain (CTD) believed to be involved in the response to regulators during transcription initiation. The CTD is phosphorylated on a portion of RNA polymerase II molecules in vivo and it can be phosphorylated by the general transcription factor TFIIH in vitro. A highly purified TFIIH from rat liver has been described; this, like human and yeast TFIIH, contains associated CTD kinase and helicase activities. We report here that two polypeptides of the purified mammalian TFIIH are the MO15/Cdk7 kinase and cyclin H subunits of the Cdk-activating kinase Cak, previously identified as a positive regulator of Cdc2 and Cdk2. TFIIH and Cak preparations are each capable of phosphorylating recombinant CTD and recombinant Cdk2 proteins. The presence of Cak in TFIIH indicates that Cak may have roles in transcriptional regulation and in cell-cycle control.
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PMID:Association of Cdk-activating kinase subunits with transcription factor TFIIH. 788 50

The largest subunit of RNA polymerase (RNAP) II contains at it C-terminus an unusual domain comprising tandem repeats of the consensus sequence Tyr-Ser-Pro-Thr-Ser-Pro-Ser. This C-terminal domain (CTD) can undergo phosphorylation at multiple sites giving rise to a form of the enzyme designated RNAP IIO. The unphosphorylated form is designated RNAP IIA. The largest subunits of RNAPs IIO and IIA are designated IIo and IIa, respectively. In quiescent NIH 3T3 fibroblasts, subunits IIo and IIa are present in comparable amounts. Upon serum stimulation, the amount of subunit IIo increases markedly and remains elevated for several hours. The increase of subunit IIo also occurs in transcription-inhibited cells and, therefore, is not a consequence of serum-activated transcription. This observation suggests that serum stimulation activates a CTD kinase and/or inhibits a CTD phosphatase. This hypothesis is supported by the finding that serum stimulates phosphorylation of a beta-galactosidase-CTD fusion protein expressed in these cells. Furthermore, an enhanced CTD kinase activity was discovered in lysates from serum-stimulated fibroblasts and was found to copurify with MAP kinases on a Mono Q column and to bind to anti-MAP kinase antibodies. The idea that MAP kinases phosphorylate the CTD in vivo is supported by the observation that subunit IIa, but not subunit IIb which lacks the CTD, is phosphorylated at multiple sites by purified MAP kinase. Consequently, the MAP kinases are a new class of CTD kinases which appear to be involved in the phosphorylation of RNAP II following serum stimulation. This phosphorylation may contribute to the transcriptional activation of serum-stimulated genes.
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PMID:Enhanced phosphorylation of the C-terminal domain of RNA polymerase II upon serum stimulation of quiescent cells: possible involvement of MAP kinases. 795 47

KIN28, a member of the p34cdc2/CDC28 family of protein kinases, is identified as a subunit of yeast RNA polymerase transcription factor IIH (TFIIH) on the basis of sequence determination, immunological reactivity, and copurification. KIN28 is, moreover, one of three subunits of TFIIK, a subassembly of TFIIH with protein kinase activity directed toward the C-terminal repeat domain (CTD) of the largest subunit of RNA polymerase II. Itself a phosphoprotein, KIN28 interacts specifically with the two largest subunits of RNA polymerase II. Previous work of others points to two further associations: KIN28 interacts in vivo with the cyclin CCL1, and KIN28 and CCL1 are homologous to human MO15 and cyclin H, which form the cyclin-dependent kinase-activating kinase (CAK). We show that human CAK possesses the CTD kinase activity characteristic of TFIIH.
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PMID:Relationship of CDK-activating kinase and RNA polymerase II CTD kinase TFIIH/TFIIK. 800 Nov 36

Phosphorylation of the COOH-terminal domain (CTD) of the largest subunit of RNA polymerase II by general transcription factor IIH (TFIIH) is believed to control the activity of polymerase at some stage of messenger RNA synthesis. In a recent study, transcription factor IIE (TFIIE) was proposed to play a key role in regulating phosphorylation of the RNA polymerase II CTD, on the basis of evidence indicating that preparations of recombinant TFIIE strongly stimulate CTD phosphorylation by TFIIH (Lu, H., Zawel, L., Fischer, L., Egly, J.-M., and Reinberg, D. (1992) Nature 358, 641-645). TFIIE is a heterodimer composed of 56-kDa (p56) and 34-kDa (p34) subunits and functions in concert with the TATA factor, TFIIB, TFIIF, and TFIIH to promote formation of the RNA polymerase II preinitiation complex. In the process of investigating the role that TFIIE plays in controlling phosphorylation of the RNA polymerase II CTD, we discovered that preparations of the recombinant TFIIE p56 subunit were sufficient to reconstitute stimulation of CTD phosphorylation by the TFIIH kinase. Further investigation revealed that CTD kinase stimulatory activity was chromatographically separable from the bulk of the transcriptionally active p56 subunit and was associated, instead, with a minor oligomeric form of p56. Taken together, these findings argue that the TFIIE p56 subunit is capable of interacting not only with the p34 subunit but also with itself to form either heterodimers or high molecular mass oligomers that play distinct roles in transcription initiation and regulation of the TFIIH kinase.
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PMID:An oligomeric form of the large subunit of transcription factor (TF) IIE activates phosphorylation of the RNA polymerase II carboxyl-terminal domain by TFIIH. 805 Nov 77

Formation of an RNA polymerase II transcription initiation complex requires binding of a polymerase that contains a non-phosphorylated largest subunit carboxyl-terminal domain (CTD). Polymerase binding is followed by elongation after phosphorylation of the CTD by a CTD kinase. Phosphorylation sites are within the repeating heptapeptide motifs which characterize the CTD of all eukaryotic RNA polymerase IIs. In contrast to all other eukaryotes studied, the trypanosome genome contains two genetic loci which encode the large subunit of RNA polymerase II; both genes lack CTD heptapeptide repeat structures. We have examined whether Trypanosoma brucei RNA polymerase II, despite its unique CTD domain, is phosphorylated when isolated from elongating transcription complexes. Elongating trypanosome RNA polymerases were photoaffinity labeled during nuclear run-on assays. The identity of the labeled proteins was established by immunoblotting and immunoprecipitation using polymerase-specific antisera. Analysis of the largest subunit of RNA polymerase II revealed the expected 195-kDa species and an additional larger 220-kDa species. The apparent molecular weight of this larger form of RNA polymerase II decreased incrementally as a function of incubation with increasing concentrations of calf intestinal phosphatase. These results show that extensive phosphorylation of the largest subunit of RNA polymerase-II is a conserved feature between trypanosomes and higher eukaryotes despite the absence of a typical CTD domain.
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PMID:Trypanosoma brucei RNA polymerase II is phosphorylated in the absence of carboxyl-terminal domain heptapeptide repeats. 810 43

RNA polymerase II initiation factor delta was previously purified from rat liver and found to possess a closely associated DNA-dependent ATPase activity and a protein kinase activity capable of phosphorylating the carboxyl-terminal domain (CTD) of the largest subunit of RNA polymerase II (Serizawa, H., Conaway, R.C., and Conaway, J.W. (1992) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 89, 7476-7480). In addition, delta's human homolog, BTF2(TFIIH), was recently shown to have an associated DNA helicase activity (Schaeffer, L., Roy, R., Humbert, S., Moncollin, V., Vermeulen, W., Hoeijmakers, J.H.J., Chambon, P., and Egly, J.-M. (1993) Science 259, 58-63). Here we demonstrate that initiation factor delta also possesses DNA helicase activity. In addition, we compare the properties of delta's associated CTD kinase, ATPase, and DNA helicase activities. Whereas the enzymatic properties of ATPase and DNA helicase are similar and consistent with the possibility that they could function in ATP-dependent activation of the preinitiation complex, ATPase and CTD kinase exhibit significant differences in their nucleotide specificities, responses to DNA effectors, and sensitivities to inhibitors.
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PMID:Multifunctional RNA polymerase II initiation factor delta from rat liver. Relationship between carboxyl-terminal domain kinase, ATPase, and DNA helicase activities. 839 38

Phosphorylation of the heptapeptide repeats in the C-terminal domain (CTD) of the largest subunit of RNA polymerase II has been widely proposed as an essential step in transcription initiation on the basis of findings indicating (1) that the CTDs of RNA polymerase II molecules actively engaged in transcription are highly phosphorylated; (2) that polymerase molecules containing non-phosphorylated CTDs preferentially enter the preinitiation complex where they are subsequently phosphorylated; and (3) that essential initiation factors b from yeast, delta from rat, and BTF2(TFIIH) from human cells have closely associated CTD-kinase activities. Here we take advantage of a highly purified enzyme system which supports both CTD phosphorylation and basal transcription to test this hypothesis directly. Using the isoquinoline sulphonamide derivative H-8, which is a potent inhibitor of CTD kinase, we show that basal transcription occurs in the absence of CTD phosphorylation.
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PMID:Phosphorylation of C-terminal domain of RNA polymerase II is not required in basal transcription. 849 23

The cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK)-activating kinase, CAK, from mammals and amphibians consists of MO15/CDK7 and cyclin H, a complex which has been identified also as a RNA polymerase II C-terminal domain (CTD) kinase. While the Schizosaccharomyces pombe cdc2 gene product also requires an activating phosphorylation, the enzyme responsible has not been identified. We have isolated an essential S.pombe gene, mop1, whose product is closely related to MO15 and to Saccharomyces cerevisiae Kin28. The functional similarity of Mop1 and MO15 is reflected in the ability of MO15 to rescue a mop1 null allele. This suggests that Mop1 would be a CDK, and indeed Mop1 associates with a previously characterized cyclin H-related cyclin Mcs2 of S.pombe. Also, Mop1 and Mcs2 can associate with the heterologous partners human cyclin H and MO15, respectively. Moreover, the rescue of a temperature-sensitive mcs2 strain by expression of mop1+ demonstrates a genetic interaction between mop1 and mcs2. In a functional assay, immunoprecipitated Mop1-Mcs2 acts both as an RNA polymerase II CTD kinase and as a CAK. The CAK activity of Mop1-Mcs2 distinguishes it from the related CDK-cyclin pair Kin28-Ccl1 from S.cerevisiae, and supports the notion that Mop1-Mcs2 may represent a homolog of MO15-cyclin H in S.pombe with apparent dual roles as a RNA polymerase CTD kinase and as a CAK.
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PMID:Schizosaccharomyces pombe Mop1-Mcs2 is related to mammalian CAK. 855 36

Phosphorylation of the carboxyl-terminal domain (CTD) of the largest subunit of RNA polymerase II has been implicated as an important step in transcriptional regulation. Previously, we reported that a cellular CTD kinase, TAK, is targeted by the human immunodeficiency virus transactivator Tat. In the present study, we analyzed several other transactivators for the ability to interact with CTD kinases in vitro. The adenovirus E1A and herpes simplex virus VP16 proteins, but not other transactivators tested, were found to associate with a cellular kinase activity that hyperphosphorylates the CTD. The interaction is dependent upon a functional activation domain of E1A or VP16, suggesting that the interaction with a CTD kinase is relevant for the transactivation function of these proteins. The CTD kinase activities that interact with E1A and VP16 are related to each other but distinct from TAK. The Tat-, E1A- and VP16-associated CTD kinase activities detected in our assay also appear unrelated to MO15, the catalytic component of the CTD kinase activity of the general transcription factor TFIIH. Thus, this study has identified a novel interaction between viral transactivators and a cellular CTD kinase and suggests that at least two CTD kinases may mediate responses to viral transactivators.
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PMID:Viral transactivators specifically target distinct cellular protein kinases that phosphorylate the RNA polymerase II C-terminal domain. 860 64


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