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Originally published in Science Express on 9 June 2005
Science 15 July 2005:
Vol. 309. no. 5733, pp. 467 - 469
DOI: 10.1126/science.1114955
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Reports

RNA Polymerase II Is Required for RNAi-Dependent Heterochromatin Assembly

Hiroaki Kato,1 Derek B. Goto,2 Robert A. Martienssen,2 Takeshi Urano,3 Koichi Furukawa,3 Yota Murakami1*

In Schizosaccharomyces pombe, the RNA interference (RNAi) machinery converts pericentromeric transcripts into small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) and is required for the assembly of pericentromeric heterochromatin. Here we describe a mutation in the second largest subunit of RNA polymerase II (RNAPII). Both wild-type and mutant RNAPII localized to the pericentromere. However, the mutation resulted in the loss of heterochromatic histone modifications and in the accumulation of pericentromeric transcripts, accompanied by the loss of siRNAs. This phenotype resembles mutants in RNAi and suggests that RNAPII couples pericentromeric transcription with siRNA processing and heterochromatin assembly.

1 Department of Viral Oncology, Institute for Virus Research, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606–8507, Japan.
2 Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724, USA.
3 Department of Biochemistry II, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya 466–8550, Japan.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Department of Viral Oncology, Institute for Virus Research, Kyoto University, Shogoinkawahara-cho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, Kyoto 606-8507, Japan. E-mail: yota{at}virus.kyoto-u.ac.jp

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