The transcriptional elongation rate regulates alternative polyadenylation in yeast

  1. Joseph V Geisberg
  2. Zarmik Moqtaderi
  3. Kevin Struhl  Is a corresponding author
  1. Harvard Medical School, United States

Abstract

Yeast cells undergoing the diauxic response show a striking upstream shift in poly(A) site utilization, with increased use of ORF-proximal poly(A) sites resulting in shorter 3' mRNA isoforms for most genes. This altered poly(A) pattern is extremely similar to that observed in cells containing Pol II derivatives with slow elongation rates. Conversely, cells containing derivatives with fast elongation rates show a subtle downstream shift in poly(A) sites. Polyadenylation patterns of many genes are sensitive to both fast and slow elongation rates, and a global shift of poly(A) utilization is strongly linked to increased purine content of sequences flanking poly(A) sites. Pol II processivity is impaired in diauxic cells, but strains with reduced processivity and normal Pol II elongation rates have normal polyadenylation profiles. Thus, Pol II elongation speed is important for poly(A) site selection and for regulating poly(A) patterns in response to environmental conditions.

Data availability

Sequencing data has been deposited in GEO under accession code GSE151196

The following data sets were generated

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Joseph V Geisberg

    Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  2. Zarmik Moqtaderi

    Blavatnik Institute, Dept. of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-2785-7034
  3. Kevin Struhl

    Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, United States
    For correspondence
    kevin@hms.harvard.edu
    Competing interests
    Kevin Struhl, Senior editor, eLife.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-4181-7856

Funding

National Institutes of Health (GM 30186)

  • Joseph V Geisberg
  • Zarmik Moqtaderi
  • Kevin Struhl

National Institutes of Health (GM 131801)

  • Joseph V Geisberg
  • Zarmik Moqtaderi
  • Kevin Struhl

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Copyright

© 2020, Geisberg et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

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  1. Joseph V Geisberg
  2. Zarmik Moqtaderi
  3. Kevin Struhl
(2020)
The transcriptional elongation rate regulates alternative polyadenylation in yeast
eLife 9:e59810.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.59810

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.59810

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