Mol. Cell. Biol., Jan 1998, 1-9, Vol 18, No. 1
R Arrebola, N Manaud, S Rozenfeld, MC Marsolier, O Lefebvre, C Carles, P Thuriaux, C Conesa and A Sentenac
Transcription factor IIIC (TFIIIC) (or tau) is a large multisubunit and
multifunctional factor required for transcription of all class III genes in
Saccharomyces cerevisiae. It is responsible for promoter recognition and
TFIIIB assembly. We report here the cloning and characterization of TFC6,
an essential gene encoding the 91-kDa polypeptide, tau91, present in
affinity-purified TFIIIC. Tau91 has a predicted molecular mass of 74 kDa.
It harbors a central cluster of His and Cys residues and has basic and
acidic amino acid regions, but it shows no specific similarity to known
proteins or predicted open reading frames. The TFIIIC subunit status of
tau91 was established by the following biochemical and genetic evidence.
Antibodies to tau91 bound TFIIIC-DNA complexes in gel shift assays; in
vivo, a B block- deficient U6 RNA gene (SNR6) harboring GAL4 binding sites
was reactivated by fusing the GAL4 DNA binding domain to tau91; and a point
mutation in TFC6 (tau91-E330K) was found to suppress the thermosensitive
phenotype of a tfc3-G349E mutant affected in the B block binding subunit
(tau138). The suppressor mutation alleviated the DNA binding and
transcription defects of mutant TFIIIC in vitro. These results indicated
that tau91 cooperates with tau138 for DNA binding. Recombinant tau91 by
itself did not interact with a tRNA gene, although it showed a strong
affinity for single-stranded DNA.
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology
Tau91, an essential subunit of yeast transcription factor IIIC, cooperates with tau138 in DNA binding
Service de Biochemie et de Genetique Moleculaire, CEA/Saclay, Gif-sur- Yvette, France.
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