Sites of initiation and pausing in the Escherichia coli rnpB (M1 RNA) transcript

DNA sequences affecting the transcription of the Escherichia coli rnpB transcript encoding the catalytic M1 RNA subunit of RNase P have been analyzed. Previous work (Motamedi, H., Lee, Y., and Schmidt, F.J.) (1984) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 81, 3959-3963) identified S1 nuclease protection products corresponding to transcripts originating upstream of the M1 RNA gene. Sequence analysis of the upstream region of rnpB identified three regions homologous to the E. coli consensus promoter sequence. In the present work, analysis of in vitro transcription products by S1 nuclease mapping indicated that all three promoter homologies were capable of directing transcription. The nearest promoter, P-1, was approximately 100 times more active than either of the upstream homologies P-2 and vivo experiments, wherein the three promoter homologies preceding rnpB were cloned into the galactokinase (GalK) expression vector pKO100. The promoter homology nearest to the M1 RNA gene directed the synthesis of GalK above background. The upstream promoter homologies did not direct the synthesis of GalK at a level greater than 1% of transcription from P-1. Deletion of the upstream homologies did not affect transcription from P-1. It was concluded that P-1 is responsible for essentially all M1 RNA transcription in vivo. Single-round transcription experiments in vitro detected strong NusA-independent transcriptional pausing at nucleotides +118 and +121 of the rnpB transcript, with a half-life of 27 s when concentrations of NTPs were near the average Km for elongation. Pausing at these points was eliminated by substitution of ITP for GTP in the transcription mixture. This suggests that pausing is dependent on transcript secondary structure. The position of pausing corresponds to that of a dual stem and loop structure of M1 RNA which has recently been proposed on the basis of phylogenetic sequence analysis.