TY - JOUR TI - Archaeal TFEα/β is a hybrid of TFIIE and the RNA polymerase III subcomplex hRPC62/39 AU - Blombach, Fabian AU - Salvadori, Enrico AU - Fouqueau, Thomas AU - Yan, Jun AU - Reimann, Julia AU - Sheppard, Carol AU - Smollett, Katherine L AU - Albers, Sonja V AU - Kay, Christopher WM AU - Thalassinos, Konstantinos AU - Werner, Finn A2 - Cramer, Patrick VL - 4 PY - 2015 DA - 2015/06/12 SP - e08378 C1 - eLife 2015;4:e08378 DO - 10.7554/eLife.08378 UR - https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.08378 AB - Transcription initiation of archaeal RNA polymerase (RNAP) and eukaryotic RNAPII is assisted by conserved basal transcription factors. The eukaryotic transcription factor TFIIE consists of α and β subunits. Here we have identified and characterised the function of the TFIIEβ homologue in archaea that on the primary sequence level is related to the RNAPIII subunit hRPC39. Both archaeal TFEβ and hRPC39 harbour a cubane 4Fe-4S cluster, which is crucial for heterodimerization of TFEα/β and its engagement with the RNAP clamp. TFEα/β stabilises the preinitiation complex, enhances DNA melting, and stimulates abortive and productive transcription. These activities are strictly dependent on the β subunit and the promoter sequence. Our results suggest that archaeal TFEα/β is likely to represent the evolutionary ancestor of TFIIE-like factors in extant eukaryotes. KW - archaea KW - transcription KW - RNA polymerase KW - TFE KW - TFIIE KW - evolution JF - eLife SN - 2050-084X PB - eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd ER -