Mechanism of mammalian transcriptional repression by noncoding RNA
Download
Journal Article
| Published
| English
Scopus indexed
Author
Corresponding author has ISTA affiliation
Department
Abstract
Transcription by RNA polymerase II (Pol II) can be repressed by noncoding RNA, including the human RNA Alu. However, the mechanism by which endogenous RNAs repress transcription remains unclear. Here we present cryogenic-electron microscopy structures of Pol II bound to Alu RNA, which reveal that Alu RNA mimics how DNA and RNA bind to Pol II during transcription elongation. Further, we show how distinct domains of the general transcription factor TFIIF control repressive activity. Together, we reveal how a noncoding RNA can regulate mammalian gene expression.
Publishing Year
Date Published
2025-04-01
Journal Title
Nature Structural & Molecular Biology
Publisher
Springer Nature
Acknowledgement
We thank the members of the Bernecky laboratory for helpful discussions and A. Hlavata for providing Pol II for use in the fluorescence anisotropy binding assay. We thank V.-V. Hodirnau for SerialEM data collection and support with EPU data collection. We thank D. Slade (Max Perutz Laboratories and Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria) for the wild-type TFIIF expression plasmid. We thank N. Thompson and R. Burgess (McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA) for the 8WG16 hybridoma cell line. We thank C. Plaschka and M. Loose for critical reading of the manuscript. This work was supported by Austrian Science Fund (FWF) grant no. P34185 (DOI 10.55776/P34185) (C.B.). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript. This research was further supported by the Scientific Service Units of ISTA through resources provided by the Laboratory Support Facility, Electron Microscopy Facility, Scientific Computing and the Preclinical Facility.
Acknowledged SSUs
Volume
32
Page
607-612
ISSN
eISSN
IST-REx-ID
All files available under the following license(s):
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0):
Main File(s)
File Name
Access Level
Open Access
Date Uploaded
2025-04-16
MD5 Checksum
2919b30b271f395888e880076a680d73
Material in ISTA:
Earlier Version
Export
Marked PublicationsOpen Data ISTA Research Explorer
Google Scholar