Abstract
Reversible Phosphorylation of the C-terminal Domain of RNA Polymerase II
Highlights
The CTD of RNAP II is unusual with respect to both the high level of repetition of the consensus repeat and its high level of phosphorylation
The fact that each round of transcription is associated with the reversible phosphorylation of the CTD is consistent with the idea that RNAP IIA and IIO have distinct roles in the transcription cycle
RNAP IIA has been shown to selectively assemble into preinitiation complexes on a number of promoters, whereas transcript elongation has been shown to be catalyzed by RNAP IIO
Summary
Experiments have not been reported that would distinguish between a requirement based on the physical release of RNAP II from the initiated complex and a requirement for a phosphorylated CTD to establish a stable elongation complex. The possibility exists that CTD phosphorylation plays no direct role in the initiation process but is temporally correlated with initiation because it is essential for the formation of a competent elongation complex. This idea is consistent with the finding that transcription complexes paused near the transcriptional start site on a number of Drosophila genes contain RNAP IIA (34).
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