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Updated: Oct 7, 2026

Assaying Protein Kinase Activity with Radiolabeled ATP
Published on: May 26, 2017
Transcription-independent phosphorylation of the RNA polymerase II C-terminal domain (CTD) involves ERK kinases
F Bonnet1, M Vigneron, O Bensaude
1Laboratoire de Régulation de l'Expression Génétique, CNRS UMR 8541, Ecole Normale Supérieure, 46 rue d'Ulm, 75230 Paris Cedex 05, France.
Abstract:
The largest subunit of the mammalian RNA polymerase II possesses a C-terminal domain (CTD) consisting of 52 repeats of the consensus sequence, Tyr(1)-Ser(2)-Pro(3)-Thr(4)-Ser(5)-Pro(6)-Ser(7). Phosphorylation of the CTD is known to play a key role in gene expression. We now show that treatments such as osmotic and oxidative shocks or serum stimulation generate a new type of phosphorylated subunit, the IIm form. This IIm form might be generated in vivo by ERK-type MAP kinase phosphorylation as: (i) ERK1/2 are major CTD kinases found in cell extracts; (ii) the immunoreactivity of the IIm form against a panel of monoclonal antibodies indicates that the CTD is exclusively phosphorylated on Ser-5 in the repeats, like RNA polymerase II phosphorylated in vitro by an ERK1/2; and (iii) the IIm form does not appear when ERK activation is prevented by treating cells with low concentrations of highly specific inhibitors of MEK1/2. Since the IIm subunit is not affected by inhibition of transcription and is not bound to chromatin, it does not participate in transcription.
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