Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: EC:3.1.26.9 (ribonuclease)
 6,589 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Regulation of transcription elongation is an important mechanism in controlling eukaryotic gene expression. SII is an RNA polymerase II-binding protein that stimulates transcription elongation and also activates nascent transcript cleavage by RNA polymerase II in elongation complexes in vitro (Reines, D. (1992) J. Biol. Chem. 267, 3795-3800). Here we show that SII-dependent in vitro transcription through an arrest site in a human gene is preceded by nascent transcript cleavage. RNA cleavage appeared to be an obligatory step in the SII activation process. Recombinant SII activated cleavage while a truncated derivative lacking polymerase binding activity did not. Cleavage was not restricted to an elongation complex arrested at this particular site, showing that nascent RNA hydrolysis is a general property of RNA polymerase II elongation complexes. These data support a model whereby SII stimulates elongation via a ribonuclease activity of the elongation complex.
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PMID:The RNA polymerase II elongation complex. Factor-dependent transcription elongation involves nascent RNA cleavage. 137 32

RNA chain elongation by RNA polymerase is a dynamic process. Techniques that allow the isolation of active elongation complexes have enabled investigators to describe individual steps in the polymerization of RNA chains. This article will describe recent studies of elongation by RNA polymerase II (pol II). At least four types of blockage to chain elongation can be overcome by elongation factor SII: (a) naturally occurring "arrest" sequences, (b) DNA-bound protein, (c) drugs bound in the DNA minor groove, and (d) chain-terminating substrates incorporated into the RNA chain. SII binds to RNA polymerase II and stimulates a ribonuclease activity that shortens nascent transcripts from their 3' ends. This RNA cleavage is required for chain elongation from some template positions. As a result, the pol II elongation complex can repeatedly shorten and reextend the nascent RNA chain in a process we refer to as cleavage-resynthesis. Hence, assembly of large RNAs does not necessarily proceed in a direct manner. The ability to shorten and reextend nascent RNAs means that a transcription impediment through which only half the enzyme molecules can proceed per encounter, can be overcome by 99% of the molecules after six iterations of cleavage-resynthesis. Surprisingly, the boundaries of the elongation complex do not move upstream after RNA cleavage. The physico-chemical alterations in the elongation complex that accompany RNA cleavage and permit renewed chain elongation are not yet understood.
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PMID:Transcription elongation by RNA polymerase II: mechanism of SII activation. 831 68

Elongation factor SII is required to increase the efficiency of transcription by RNA polymerase II through intrinsic arrest sites. RNA polymerase II ternary complexes exhibit a ribonuclease activity in the presence of SII, truncating nascent transcripts in a 3'-->5' direction. We show here that transcript cleavage is an obligatory step in re-establishing the elongation competency of complexes that have become blocked in elongation at an intrinsic arrest site. SII-facilitated transcript cleavage by these arrested complexes released 7-14 nucleotide RNA fragments. In contrast, SII-facilitated transcript cleavage by elongation competent complexes, which are stalled because of the absence of a nucleoside triphosphate from the reaction mixture, occurred primarily in dinucleotide increments. We can partially recreate the arrested phenotype and the preference for the large cleavage increment by stalling ternary complexes such that the 3'-end of the transcript contains consecutive U residues, which mimics the sequence of the 3'-ends of transcripts in arrested complexes.
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PMID:The increment of SII-facilitated transcript cleavage varies dramatically between elongation competent and incompetent RNA polymerase II ternary complexes. 850 21

RNA polymerases encounter specific DNA sites at which RNA chain elongation takes place in the absence of enzyme translocation in a process called discontinuous elongation. For RNA polymerase II, at least some of these sequences also provoke transcriptional arrest where renewed RNA polymerization requires elongation factor SII. Recent elongation models suggest the occupancy of a site within RNA polymerase that accommodates nascent RNA during discontinuous elongation. Here we have probed the extent of nascent RNA extruded from RNA polymerase II as it approaches, encounters, and departs an arrest site. Just upstream of an arrest site, 17-19 nucleotides of the RNA 3'-end are protected from exhaustive digestion by exogenous ribonuclease probes. As RNA is elongated to the arrest site, the enzyme does not translocate and the protected RNA becomes correspondingly larger, up to 27 nucleotides in length. After the enzyme passes the arrest site, the protected RNA is again the 18-nucleotide species typical of an elongation-competent complex. These findings identify an extended RNA product groove in arrested RNA polymerase II that is probably identical to that emptied during SII-activated RNA cleavage, a process required for the resumption of elongation. Unlike Escherichia coli RNA polymerase at a terminator, arrested RNA polymerase II does not release its RNA but can reestablish the normal elongation mode downstream of an arrest site. Discontinuous elongation probably represents a structural change that precedes, but may not be sufficient for, arrest by RNA polymerase II.
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PMID:Increased accommodation of nascent RNA in a product site on RNA polymerase II during arrest. 869 22

RNA polymerase II contains a ribonuclease activity which is stimulated by the transcription elongation factor SII. This nuclease shortens the nascent RNA and facilitates relief of transcriptional arrest by allowing the enzyme to make multiple attempts to read through an obstacle to transcription. The catalytic center of this ribonuclease is unknown, although a region of the enzyme's second largest subunit shares local sequence similarly with barnase and other bacterial ribonucleases. To test the role of the barnase homology region in SII-activated cleavage, we engineered a single amino acid change in the Saccharomyces cerevisiae enzyme at a position homologous to a catalytic residue of barnase (Glu-371) and has been suggested as a participant in active site chemistry of RNA polymerase II. We purified RNA polymerase II from mutant yeast and assayed its ability to cleave and re-extend the nascent RNA following SII treatment. We find no defects in this function of the mutant enzyme, suggesting that the barnase homology region does not represent the active site of the SII-activated nuclease. These mutant yeast cells were also resistant to mycophenolic acid, which slows the growth of some yeast mutants bearing elongation defective RNA polymerase II or mutant elongation factor SII.
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PMID:Glutamic acid-371 of the barnase homology domain in RNA polymerase II is not required for SII-activated RNA cleavage. 903 12

Eukaryotic RNA polymerase II and Escherichia coli RNA polymerase possess an intrinsic ribonuclease activity that is stimulated by the polymerase-binding proteins SII and GreB, respectively. This factor-activated hydrolysis of nascent RNA has been postulated to be involved in transcription elongation as well as removal of incorrect bases misincorporated into RNA. Little is known about the frequency of misincorporation by RNA polymerases in vivo or about the mechanisms involved in improving RNA polymerase accuracy. Here we have developed a luciferase reporter system in an effort to assay for base misincorporation in living Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The assay employs a luciferase open reading frame that contains a premature stop codon. The inactive truncated enzyme would become active if misincorporation by RNA polymerase II took place at the stop triplet. Yeast lacking SII did not display a significant change in reporter activity when compared with wild-type cells. We estimate that under our assay conditions, mRNAs with a misincorporation at the test site could not exceed 1 transcript per 500 cells. The reporter assay was very effective in detecting the previously described process of nonsense suppression (translational read-through) by ribosomes, making it difficult to determine an absolute level of basal (SII-independent) misincorporation by RNA polymerase II. Although these data cannot exclude the possibility that SII is involved in proofreading, they make it unlikely that such a contribution is physiologically significant, especially relative to the high frequency of translational errors.
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PMID:Use of an in vivo reporter assay to test for transcriptional and translational fidelity in yeast. 1200 89