DRP004716
RNA polymerase I activators count and adjust ribosomal RNA gene copy number
Ribosome is the most abundant RNA-protein complex in a cell and many copies of the ribosomal RNA gene (rDNA) have to be maintained. However, arrays of tandemly repeated rDNA genes can lose the copies by intra-repeat recombination. Loss of the rDNA copies of Saccharomyces cerevisiae is counteracted by gene amplification whereby the number of rDNA repeats stabilizes around 150 copies, suggesting the presence of a monitoring mechanism that counts and adjusts the number. Here, we report that in response to rDNA copy loss, the upstream activating factor (UAF) for RNA polymerase I which transcribes the rDNA is released and directly bind to a RNA polymerase II transcribed gene, SIR2 to repress, whose gene products silence rDNA recombination. We show that the amount of UAF determines rDNA copies number that is stably maintained. UAF ensures rDNA production not only by rDNA transcription activation but also by its copy number maintenance.