Atypical Transcription Factors Function with RNA Polymerase II in Trypanosomes to Produce the Spliced Leader RNA

摘要

Detailed studies of nuclear gene transcription in trypanosomes demonstrate that these organisms deviate from the paradigms established for this cellular function in well-studied eukaryotes. A combination of biochemistry and in silica database analyses have uncovered the trypanosome homologs of eukaryotic transcription factors that associate typically with small nuclear RNAs-coding gene promoters, and recruit the trypanosomal RNA polymerase II to the Spliced Leader (SL) RNA gene. Herein we focus on tTBP, tTFIIB, tSNAPc and tTFIIA, each important for SL RNA production and each intriguingly deviant from their human and yeast homologs.