Stimulation of RNA polymerase II transcript cleavage activity contributes to maintain transcriptional fidelity in yeast

The transcription elongation factor S-II, also designated TFIIS, stimulates the nascent transcript cleavage activity intrinsic to RNA polymerase II. Rpb9, a small subunit of RNA polymerase II, enhances the cleavage stimulation activity of S-II. Here, we investigated the role of nascent transcript cleavage stimulation activity on the maintenance of transcriptional fidelity in yeast. In yeast, S-II is encoded by the DST1 gene. Disruption of the DST1 gene decreased transcriptional fidelity in cells. Mutations in the DST1 gene that reduce the S-II cleavage stimulation activity led to decreased transcriptional fidelity in cells. A disruption mutant of the RPB9 gene also had decreased transcriptional fidelity. Expression of mutant Rpb9 proteins that are unable to enhance the S-II cleavage stimulation activity failed to restore the phenotype. These results suggest that both S-II and Rpb9 maintain transcriptional fidelity by stimulating the cleavage activity intrinsic to RNA polymerase II. Also, a DST1 and RPB9 double mutant had more severe transcriptional fidelity defect compared with the DST1 gene deletion mutant, suggesting that Rpb9 maintains transcriptional fidelity via two mechanisms, enhancement of S-II dependent cleavage stimulation and S-II independent function(s).