The different positioning of the proximal sequence element in the Xenopus RNA polymerase II and III snRNA promoters is a key determinant which confers RNA polymerase III specificity.

We and others have previously described the TATA motif as a major determinant for Pol III specificity of the U6 promoter. Surprisingly, however, the data documented here show that the sole introduction of a TATA sequence into a U1 Pol II snRNA gene is not sufficient to confer Pol III transcription. Rather, this promoter element can mediate optimal Pol III transcription only if the PSE, the second promoter element, is shifted 4 bp upstream of the position it occupies in Pol II snRNA genes. As a result, the PSE-TATA-start site spacing introduced into the U1 Pol II gene is identical to that of the U6 gene and is strictly required to produce properly initiated Pol III transcripts. Thus, Pol II and Pol III PSEs, although similar in sequence, are not positionally equivalent. Competitive experiments raise the possibility that vertebrate U6 genes contain other, as yet unidentified, promoter elements.