title: Role of a small RNA pol II subunit in TATA to transcription start site spacing.
abstract: The yeast shi mutation affects the spacing between the TATA promoter element and transcription initiation sites; for the H2B and ADH1 genes, a series of start sites located approximately 50-80 bp downstream of TATA is used in addition to the wild-type initiation sites located at around 100 bp from TATA (1). Here, the yeast SHI wild-type gene has been isolated by complementation and shown to be identical to RPB9, the gene encoding a small subunit of RNA polymerase II. A point mutation in the shi gene, changing a cysteine residue in a putative zinc ribbon motif into a phenylalanine residue, was demonstrated to permit the observed usage of upstream initiation sites. Deletion of the non-essential SHI gene also results in usage of upstream initiation sites and causes conditional growth defects.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Cell Biology, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH-Hönggerberg, Zürich.
authors.forename: E M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Furter-Graves
authors.forename: B D
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Hall
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Furter
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001483:Base Sequence; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D004252:DNA Mutational Analysis; D005800:Genes, Fungal / Q000235:genetics*; D005816:Genetic Complementation Test; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D017354:Point Mutation / Q000502:physiology; D012319:RNA Polymerase II / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D012331:RNA, Fungal / Q000096:biosynthesis; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000096:biosynthesis; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics; D017384:Sequence Deletion / Q000502:physiology; D016385:TATA Box / Q000502:physiology*; D014158:Transcription, Genetic / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D012331:RNA, Fungal; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D012319:RNA Polymerase II