Hydrolytic cleavage of nascent RNA in RNA polymerase III ternary transcription complexes

Highly purified yeast RNA polymerase III ternary complexes were found to possess a hydrolytic chain retracting activity that cleaves nascent RNA from its 3'-OH end. Most of the shortened transcripts were capable of resuming RNA chain elongation, indicating that they remain stably associated with the enzyme-DNA complex. Analysis of the products of cleavage indicated that retraction primarily occurred in dinucleotide increments, but that mononucleotides were also excised at lower frequency. The ribonuclease activity was totally dependent on the presence of a divalent cation and was stimulated by the addition of non-cognate ribonucleotides. The inclusion of ATP in the reaction enhanced both the rate and extent of transcript cleavage. Evidence suggesting that the hydrolytic activity is intrinsic to RNA polymerase III and factor-independent is also presented. Transcript cleavage by RNA polymerase III ternary complexes appears to be more closely related to the intrinsic nucleolytic activity of vaccinia virus RNA polymerase ternary complexes than to TFIIS-dependent cleavage that has been described for RNA polymerase II ternary complexes.