Waibel F, Filipowicz W
Friedrich Miescher-Institut, Basel, Switzerland.
Nature. 1990 Jul 12;346(6280):199-202. doi: 10.1038/346199a0.
Although most eukaryotic genes known to be transcribed by RNA polymerase III have intragenic promoter elements, some are similar to genes transcribed by RNA polymerase II in that they have upstream promoters (reviewed in refs 1-4). Transcription of the vertebrate U6 and 7SK RNA genes by RNA polymerase III depends exclusively upon upstream signals, some of which are indistinguishable from the elements essential for polymerase II-specific genes. In the plant Arabidopsis thaliana the promoter elements for the U6 and U2 small nuclear RNA genes, transcribed by RNA polymerases III and II respectively, are identical, comprising a -30 TATA box and an upstream element specific for small nuclear RNA genes. The distance between these elements differs, however. Here we report evidence that this separation is crucial in determining whether the genes are transcribed by polymerase II or III.
虽然已知大多数由RNA聚合酶III转录的真核基因具有基因内启动子元件，但有些基因类似于由RNA聚合酶II转录的基因，因为它们具有上游启动子（参考文献1-4中有综述）。脊椎动物U6和7SK RNA基因由RNA聚合酶III转录完全依赖于上游信号，其中一些信号与聚合酶II特异性基因所必需的元件无法区分。在植物拟南芥中，分别由RNA聚合酶III和II转录的U6和U2小核RNA基因的启动子元件是相同的，包括一个-30 TATA盒和一个小核RNA基因特有的上游元件。然而，这些元件之间的距离不同。在这里，我们报告证据表明这种间隔对于确定这些基因是由聚合酶II还是聚合酶III转录至关重要。
