title: Functional substitution of an essential yeast RNA polymerase subunit by a highly conserved mammalian counterpart.
abstract: We isolated the cDNA encoding the homolog of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae nuclear RNA polymerase common subunit RPB6 from hamster CHO cells. Alignment of yeast RPB6 with its mammalian counterpart revealed that the subunits have nearly identical carboxy-terminal halves and a short acidic region at the amino terminus. Remarkably, the length and amino acid sequence of the hamster RPB6 are identical to those of the human RPB6 subunit. The conservation in sequence from lower to higher eukaryotes also reflects conservation of function in vivo, since hamster RPB6 supports normal wild-type yeast cell growth in the absence of the essential gene encoding RPB6.
authors.affiliation: Roche Institute of Molecular Biology, Nutley, New Jersey 07110.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: McKune
authors.forename: N A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Woychik
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D016466:CHO Cells; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000201:enzymology; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D006224:Cricetinae; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism; D012321:DNA-Directed RNA Polymerases / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006801:Humans; D046911:Macromolecular Substances; D008322:Mammals; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D012319:RNA Polymerase II / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification; D015183:Restriction Mapping; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000201:enzymology*; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
chemical_list: D018076:DNA, Complementary; D046911:Macromolecular Substances; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins; D012319:RNA Polymerase II; D012321:DNA-Directed RNA Polymerases