Biogenesis of RNA Polymerases II and III Requires the Conserved GPN Small GTPases in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The GPN proteins are a poorly characterized and deeply evolutionarily conserved family of three paralogous small GTPases, Gpn1, 2, and 3. The founding member, GPN1/NPA3/XAB1, is proposed to function in nuclear import of RNA polymerase II along with a recently described protein called Iwr1. Here we s...

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Main Authors: Minaker, Sean W., Filiatrault, Megan C., Ben-Aroya, Shay, Hieter, Philip, Stirling, Peter C.
Format: Online
Language:English
Published: Genetics Society of America 2013
Online Access:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3584002/
id pubmed-3584002
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spelling pubmed-35840022013-03-01 Biogenesis of RNA Polymerases II and III Requires the Conserved GPN Small GTPases in Saccharomyces cerevisiae Minaker, Sean W. Filiatrault, Megan C. Ben-Aroya, Shay Hieter, Philip Stirling, Peter C. Investigations The GPN proteins are a poorly characterized and deeply evolutionarily conserved family of three paralogous small GTPases, Gpn1, 2, and 3. The founding member, GPN1/NPA3/XAB1, is proposed to function in nuclear import of RNA polymerase II along with a recently described protein called Iwr1. Here we show that the previously uncharacterized protein Gpn2 binds both Gpn3 and Npa3/Gpn1 and that temperature-sensitive alleles of Saccharomyces cerevisiae GPN2 and GPN3 exhibit genetic interactions with RNA polymerase II mutants, hypersensitivity to transcription inhibition, and defects in RNA polymerase II nuclear localization. Importantly, we identify previously unrecognized RNA polymerase III localization defects in GPN2, GPN3, and IWR1 mutant backgrounds but find no localization defects of unrelated nuclear proteins or of RNA polymerase I. Previously, it was unclear whether the GPN proteins and Iwr1 had overlapping function in RNA polymerase II assembly or import. In this study, we show that the nuclear import defect of iwr1Δ, but not the GPN2 or GPN3 mutant defects, is partially suppressed by fusion of a nuclear localization signal to the RNA polymerase II subunit Rpb3. These data, combined with strong genetic interactions between GPN2 and IWR1, suggest that the GPN proteins function upstream of Iwr1 in RNA polymerase II and III biogenesis. We propose that the three GPN proteins execute a common, and likely essential, function in RNA polymerase assembly and transport. Genetics Society of America 2013-03 /pmc/articles/PMC3584002/ /pubmed/23267056 http://dx.doi.org/10.1534/genetics.112.148726 Text en Copyright © 2013 by the Genetics Society of America Available freely online through the author-supported open access option.
repository_type Open Access Journal
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building NCBI PubMed
collection Online Access
language English
format Online
author Minaker, Sean W.
Filiatrault, Megan C.
Ben-Aroya, Shay
Hieter, Philip
Stirling, Peter C.
spellingShingle Minaker, Sean W.
Filiatrault, Megan C.
Ben-Aroya, Shay
Hieter, Philip
Stirling, Peter C.
Biogenesis of RNA Polymerases II and III Requires the Conserved GPN Small GTPases in Saccharomyces cerevisiae
author_facet Minaker, Sean W.
Filiatrault, Megan C.
Ben-Aroya, Shay
Hieter, Philip
Stirling, Peter C.
author_sort Minaker, Sean W.
title Biogenesis of RNA Polymerases II and III Requires the Conserved GPN Small GTPases in Saccharomyces cerevisiae
title_short Biogenesis of RNA Polymerases II and III Requires the Conserved GPN Small GTPases in Saccharomyces cerevisiae
title_full Biogenesis of RNA Polymerases II and III Requires the Conserved GPN Small GTPases in Saccharomyces cerevisiae
title_fullStr Biogenesis of RNA Polymerases II and III Requires the Conserved GPN Small GTPases in Saccharomyces cerevisiae
title_full_unstemmed Biogenesis of RNA Polymerases II and III Requires the Conserved GPN Small GTPases in Saccharomyces cerevisiae
title_sort biogenesis of rna polymerases ii and iii requires the conserved gpn small gtpases in saccharomyces cerevisiae
description The GPN proteins are a poorly characterized and deeply evolutionarily conserved family of three paralogous small GTPases, Gpn1, 2, and 3. The founding member, GPN1/NPA3/XAB1, is proposed to function in nuclear import of RNA polymerase II along with a recently described protein called Iwr1. Here we show that the previously uncharacterized protein Gpn2 binds both Gpn3 and Npa3/Gpn1 and that temperature-sensitive alleles of Saccharomyces cerevisiae GPN2 and GPN3 exhibit genetic interactions with RNA polymerase II mutants, hypersensitivity to transcription inhibition, and defects in RNA polymerase II nuclear localization. Importantly, we identify previously unrecognized RNA polymerase III localization defects in GPN2, GPN3, and IWR1 mutant backgrounds but find no localization defects of unrelated nuclear proteins or of RNA polymerase I. Previously, it was unclear whether the GPN proteins and Iwr1 had overlapping function in RNA polymerase II assembly or import. In this study, we show that the nuclear import defect of iwr1Δ, but not the GPN2 or GPN3 mutant defects, is partially suppressed by fusion of a nuclear localization signal to the RNA polymerase II subunit Rpb3. These data, combined with strong genetic interactions between GPN2 and IWR1, suggest that the GPN proteins function upstream of Iwr1 in RNA polymerase II and III biogenesis. We propose that the three GPN proteins execute a common, and likely essential, function in RNA polymerase assembly and transport.
publisher Genetics Society of America
publishDate 2013
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3584002/
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