Abstract
RNA polymerases (RNAPs) carry out transcription in the three domains of life, Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukarya. Transcription initiation is highly regulated by a variety of transcription factors, whose number and subunit complexity increase during evolution. This process is regulated in Bacteria by the σ factor, while the three eukaryotic RNAPs require a complex set of transcription factors (TFs) and a TATA-binding protein (TBP). The archaeal transcription system appears to be an ancestral version of the eukaryotic RNAPII, requiring transcription factor B (TFB), TBP, and transcription factor E (TFE). The function of the bacterial sigma (σ) factor has been correlated to the roles played by the eukaryotic RNAP II and the archaeal RNAP. In addition, σ factors, TFB, and TFIIB all contain multiple DNA binding helix-turn-helix (HTH) structural motifs; although TFIIB and TFB display two HTH domains, while the bacterial σ factor spans 4 HTH motifs. The sequence similarities and structure alignments of the bacterial σ factor, eukaryotic TFIIB, and archaeal TFB evidence that these three proteins are homologs.
Key Points • Transcription initiation is highly regulated by TFs. • Transcription is finely regulated in all domains of life by different sets of TFs. • Specific TFs in Bacteria, Eukarya and Archaea are homologs. |
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Abril, A.G., Rama, J.L.R., Sánchez-Pérez, A. et al. Prokaryotic sigma factors and their transcriptional counterparts in Archaea and Eukarya. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 104, 4289–4302 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-020-10577-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-020-10577-0