Transcriptome-wide binding sites for components of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae non-poly(A) termination pathway: Nrd1, Nab3, and Sen1.

Abstract

RNA polymerase II synthesizes a diverse set of transcripts including both protein-coding and non-coding RNAs. One major difference between these two classes of transcripts is the mechanism of termination. Messenger RNA transcripts terminate downstream of the coding region in a process that is coupled to cleavage and polyadenylation reactions. Non-coding transcripts like Saccharomyces cerevisiae snoRNAs terminate in a process that requires the RNA-binding proteins Nrd1, Nab3, and Sen1. We report here the transcriptome-wide distribution of these termination factors. These data sets derived from in vivo protein-RNA cross-linking provide high-resolution definition of non-poly(A) terminators, identify novel genes regulated by attenuation of nascent transcripts close to the promoter, and demonstrate the widespread occurrence of Nrd1-bound 3' antisense transcripts on genes that are poorly expressed. In addition, we show that Sen1 does not cross-link efficiently to many expected non-coding RNAs but does cross-link to the 3' end of most pre-mRNA transcripts, suggesting an extensive role in mRNA 3' end formation and/or termination.