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Structure of the SNAPc-bound RNA polymerase III preinitiation complex

Cell Research volume 33, pages 565–568 (2023)Cite this article

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Dear Editor,

Eukaryotic RNA polymerase III (Pol III) is required for transcribing a large amount of short non-coding RNAs, including tRNAs, 5S rRNA, and U6 snRNA.1 These products play essential roles in a large variety of cellular processes, such as translation, RNA processing, and transcription regulations. Different types of Pol III-specific genes are recognized by different multi-subunit transcription factors during the early stage of the transcription initiation, and Pol III is subsequently recruited to assemble the preinitiation complex (PIC). As a prototype of the Pol III-transcribing gene, the U6 snRNA gene contains a TATA box and a proximal sequence element (PSE), which are recognized by TFIIIB (TBP–BRF2–BDP1) and the small nuclear RNA-activating protein complex (SNAPc), respectively2 (Supplementary information, Note S1). Previous biochemical studies have identified domains or regions of SNAPc required for PSE recognition.3 Despite extensive studies of the Pol III elongation complex and yeast Pol III PIC assembly, it remains incompletely understood how SNAPc-containing Pol III PIC is organized on the U6 promoter and how the promoter DNA is melted within the PIC complex.

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Fig. 1: Cryo-EM structures of the SNAPc-bound RNA Pol III PIC.

Data availability

The atomic coordinates for Pol III PIC CC1, MC1 and OC1 have been deposited in the Protein Data Bank with the accession codes 8ITY (CC1), 8IUE (MC1) and 8IUH (OC1), respectively. The EM maps for Pol III PIC CC1, CC2, MC1, MC2, MC3, OC1 and OC2 have been deposited in the Electron Microscopy Data Bank with the codes EMD-35712 (CC1), EMD-35715 (CC2), EMD-35719 (MC1), EMD-35716 (MC2), EMD-35717 (MC3), EMD-35722 (OC1) and EMD-35718 (OC2), respectively.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Center of Cryo-Electron Microscopy at Fudan University for the supports on cryo-EM data collection. This work was supported by grants from the National Key R&D Program of China (2021YFA1300100), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32030055, 31830107, 31821002), the XPLORER Prize (to Y.X.), the New Cornerstone Investigator Program (to Y.X.), and the Science and Technology Major Project of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China to the State Key Laboratory of Reproductive Regulation and Breeding of Grassland Livestock.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Haifeng Hou, Qianwei Jin, Yulei Ren.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, Institutes of Biomedical Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Genetic Engineering and Shanghai Key Laboratory of Medical Epigenetics, Shanghai Medical College of Fudan University, Shanghai, China

    Haifeng Hou, Qianwei Jin, Yulei Ren, Zhenguo Chen, Qianmin Wang & Yanhui Xu

  2. The International Co-Laboratory of Medical Epigenetics and Metabolism, Ministry of Science and Technology, China, Department of Systems Biology for Medicine, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Shanghai Medical College of Fudan University, Shanghai, China

    Yanhui Xu

  3. Human Phenome Institute, Collaborative Innovation Center of Genetics and Development, School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, China

    Yanhui Xu

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  1. Haifeng Hou
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  3. Yulei Ren
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Contributions

H.H., Q.J., Q.W., and Y.X. designed the experiments. H.H. purified the proteins, assembled the complex, and prepared the cryo-EM sample with the help from Q.J. and Y.R.; Q.J. collected the data with the help from Y.R. and Z.C.; H.H. determined the structures and built the structural models with the help from Q.J. and Q.W.; Q.W. and Y.X. analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript. Y.X. supervised the project.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Qianmin Wang or Yanhui Xu.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Hou, H., Jin, Q., Ren, Y. et al. Structure of the SNAPc-bound RNA polymerase III preinitiation complex. Cell Res 33, 565–568 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41422-023-00819-x

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