Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405, USA.
Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol. 2011 Jul 22;12(8):483-92. doi: 10.1038/nrm3152.
In all eukaryotes, nuclear DNA-dependent RNA polymerases I, II and III synthesize the myriad RNAs that are essential for life. Remarkably, plants have evolved two additional multisubunit RNA polymerases, RNA polymerases IV and V, which orchestrate non-coding RNA-mediated gene silencing processes affecting development, transposon taming, antiviral defence and allelic crosstalk. Biochemical details concerning the templates and products of RNA polymerases IV and V are lacking. However, their subunit compositions reveal that they evolved as specialized forms of RNA polymerase II, which provides the unique opportunity to study the functional diversification of a eukaryotic RNA polymerase family.
在所有真核生物中，依赖于细胞核 DNA 的 RNA 聚合酶 I、II 和 III 合成了无数种对生命至关重要的 RNA。值得注意的是，植物已经进化出另外两种多亚基 RNA 聚合酶，RNA 聚合酶 IV 和 V，它们协调非编码 RNA 介导的基因沉默过程，影响发育、转座子驯化、抗病毒防御和等位基因串扰。有关 RNA 聚合酶 IV 和 V 的模板和产物的生化细节尚不清楚。然而，它们的亚基组成表明它们是作为 RNA 聚合酶 II 的特殊形式进化而来的，这为研究真核 RNA 聚合酶家族的功能多样化提供了独特的机会。
