Transcription termination in Saccharomyces cerevisiae can be performed by at least two distinct pathways and is directed by the phosphorylation status of the carboxy-terminal domain (CTD) of RNA polymerase II (Pol II). Late termination of mRNAs is performed by the CPF/CF complex and requires CTD-Ser2 phosphorylation. Early termination of shorter cryptic unstable transcripts (CUTs) and small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs) is preformed by the Nrd1 complex, and requires CTD-Ser5 phosphorylation. In this study, mutants of the different termination pathways were compared by genome-wide expression analysis. Surprisingly, the expression changes observed upon loss of the CTD-Ser2 kinase Ctk1 are more similar to loss of a subunit of the Ser5P binding Nrd1-complex, than to loss of Ser2P binding factors. Tiling array analysis of ctk1Δ reveals readthrough at several hundred sites, including snoRNAs, as reported previously, but also many cryptic unstable transcripts, stable untranslated transcripts (SUTs) and other transcripts. Surprisingly, neither loss of CTK1 nor a Pol II CTD-Ser2 substitution mutant results in a global defect in termination of mRNAs, indicating that Ser2P is not essential for proper termination of most mRNAs. At snoRNA, Nrd1 location is shifted downstream in ctk1∆, indicating defective release rather than recruitment of Nrd1. Weakening the interaction between Nrd1 and Pol II rescues the readthrough in ctk1∆, likely by facilitating Nrd1 release. The termination defect is kinase activity dependent, but cannot be completely explained by loss of CTD-Ser2 phosphorylation , a major substrate of Ctk1, suggesting the involvement of an additional substrate. Mutant alleles of the elongation factor Spt5 rescue ctk1∆-dependent readthrough, indicating a role for Spt5 in this process, perhaps as a substrate of Ctk1. The results show that Ctk1 is more intimately involved in termination of small non-coding RNAs than was previously assumed and lead to a model in which Ctk1 influences Spt5 activity to achieve this.
Overall design: Two channel microarrays were used. RNA isolated from a large amount of wt yeast from a single culture was used as a common reference. This common reference was used in one of the channels for each hybridization and used in the statistical analysis to obtain an average expression-profile for each deletion mutant relative to the wt. Two independent cultures were hybridized on two separate microarrays. For the first hybridization the Cy5 (red) labeled cRNA from the deletion mutant is hybridized together with the Cy3 (green) labeled cRNA from the common reference. For the replicate hybridization, the labels are swapped. Each gene is represented twice on the microarray, resulting in four measurements per mutant. Using the Erlenmeyer growth protocol up to five deletion strains were grown on a single day. In the tecan platereader, up to eleven deletion strains could be grown on a single day. Wt cultures were grown parallel to the deletion mutants to assess day-to-day variance.
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