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Mol Cell Biol, February 1998, p. 665-675, Vol. 18, No. 2
0270-7306/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
RNA Polymerase I-Promoted HIS4
Expression Yields Uncapped, Polyadenylated mRNA That Is Unstable and
Inefficiently Translated in Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Hsiu-Jung
Lo,
Han-Kuei
Huang, and
Thomas F.
Donahue*
Department of Biology, Indiana University,
Bloomington, Indiana 47405
Received 28 March 1997/Returned for modification 8 May
1997/Accepted 6 November 1997
The HIS4 gene in Saccharomyces cerevisiae
was put under the transcriptional control of RNA polymerase I to
determine the in vivo consequences on mRNA processing and gene
expression. This gene, referred to as rhis4, was
substituted for the normal HIS4 gene on chromosome III. The
rhis4 gene transcribes two mRNAs, of which each initiates
at the polymerase (pol) I transcription initiation site. One
transcript, rhis4s, is similar in size to the wild-type
HIS4 mRNA. Its 3' end maps to the HIS4 3'
noncoding region, and it is polyadenylated. The second transcript,
rhis4l, is bicistronic. It encodes the HIS4
coding region and a second open reading frame, YCL184, that
is located downstream of the HIS4 gene and is predicted to
be transcribed in the same direction as HIS4 on chromosome
III. The 3' end of rhis4l maps to the predicted 3' end of
the YCL184 gene and is also polyadenylated. Based on in
vivo labeling experiments, the rhis4 gene appears to be
more actively transcribed than the wild-type HIS4 gene
despite the near equivalence of the steady-state levels of mRNAs
produced from each gene. This finding indicated that rhis4
mRNAs are rapidly degraded, presumably due to the lack of a cap
structure at the 5' end of the mRNA. Consistent with this
interpretation, a mutant form of XRN1, which encodes a
5'-3' exonuclease, was identified as an extragenic suppressor that
increases the half-life of rhis4 mRNA, leading to a 10-fold
increase in steady-state mRNA levels compared to the wild-type
HIS4 mRNA level. This increase is dependent on pol I
transcription. Immunoprecipitation by anticap antiserum suggests that
the majority of rhis4 mRNA produced is capless. In
addition, we quantitated the level of His4 protein in a rhis4 xrn1
genetic background. This analysis indicates that capless mRNA is translated at less than 10% of the level of translation of
capped HIS4 mRNA. Our data indicate that polyadenylation of mRNA in yeast occurs despite HIS4 being transcribed by RNA
polymerase I, and the 5' cap confers stability to mRNA and affords the
ability of mRNA to be translated efficiently in vivo.
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of
Biology, Indiana University, Jordan Hall A305, Bloomington, IN 47405. Phone: (812) 855-8883. Fax: (812) 855-6705. E-mail:
donahue{at}bio.indiana.edu.

Present address: Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research
Cambridge, MA 02142-1479.
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