Evolutionary changes of sequences and factors that direct transcription termination of human and mouse ribsomal genes.

We have analyzed the sequences required for termination of human rDNA transcription. The human ribosomal transcription unit is shown to extend about 350 nucleotides into the 3'-terminal spacer and ends immediately upstream of a region with a distinct sequence heterogeneity. This heterogeneous region contains a cluster of conserved 10-base pair sequence elements which exert a striking homology to the proximal part of the 18-base pair murine rDNA transcription termination signal sequence, termed SalI box. Exonuclease III protection assays and in vitro transcription experiments with both homologous and heterologous human-mouse minigene constructs, and extracts from HeLa or Ehrlich ascites cells, reveal a functional analogy of the human sequence to the mouse SalI box. It mediates binding of a nuclear protein which functions as a transcription termination factor. The murine signal sequence is recognized by the human factor but not vice versa. The different sequence specificities and electrophoretic properties of the functionally equivalent protein factors suggest that a molecular coevolution has taken place between the termination signal sequences and the genes coding for the termination factors.