An atypical RNA polymerase involved in RNA silencing shares small subunits with RNA polymerase II (original) (raw)

Nature Structural & Molecular Biology volume 16, pages 91–93 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

Genetic evidence indicates that plant-specific homologs of DNA-dependent RNA polymerase (Pol) II large subunits form Pol IV and Pol V complexes involved in small interfering RNA production and RNA-directed DNA methylation. Here we describe evidence that Pol V contains subunits shared with Pol II, but that RNA polymerase II subunit (RPB)-4 is missing from Pol V and that RPB5 is present as a Pol V–specific isomer, RPB5b. Pol V also has other proteins that are not present in Pol II, consistent with a role of this complex as an effector of silencing.

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Acknowledgements

We thank T. Guilfoyle from the University of Missouri-Columbia for providing plant Pol II antibodies and helpful discussions. We thank M. Mann from the Max-Planck-Institut in Martinsried for hosting A.M.E.J. for the analysis of samples S4 and S5. We also thank Arabidopsis T-DNA mutant providers: The Salk Institute, GABI-Kat, the Wisconsin pDS/Lox Project and the Nottingham Arabidopsis Stock Centre. L.H. was partly supported by an Overseas Research Students award and a Marie Curie EST Grant (504273). The Gatsby Charitable Foundation provided funding for this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Sainsbury Laboratory, John Innes Centre, Colney Lane, Norwich, NR4 7UH, UK
    Linfeng Huang, Alexandra M E Jones & David C Baulcombe
  2. Department for Proteomics and Signal Transduction, Max-Planck Institute for Biochemistry, Am Klopferspitz 18, Martinsried, D-82152, Germany
    Nina C Hubner
  3. Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EA, UK
    Linfeng Huang, Iain Searle, Kanu Patel, Hannes Vogler & David C Baulcombe

Authors

  1. Linfeng Huang
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  2. Alexandra M E Jones
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  3. Iain Searle
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  4. Kanu Patel
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  5. Hannes Vogler
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  6. Nina C Hubner
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  7. David C Baulcombe
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Contributions

D.C.B. and L.H. designed the experiments; L.H., A.M.E.J. and N.C.H. performed immunoprecipitation and MS experiments; K.P., I.S., H.V. and L.H. characterized mutant plants; D.C.B., L.H., A.M.E.J. and I.S. wrote the paper.

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Correspondence toDavid C Baulcombe.

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Huang, L., Jones, A., Searle, I. et al. An atypical RNA polymerase involved in RNA silencing shares small subunits with RNA polymerase II.Nat Struct Mol Biol 16, 91–93 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nsmb.1539

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