The yeast mitochondrial RNA polymerase specificity factor, MTF1, is similar to bacterial sigma factors.

We have purified the protein that confers selective promoter recognition on the core subunit of the yeast mitochondrial RNA polymerase. The N-terminal sequence of the 43-kDa specificity factor identified it as the product of the MTF1 gene described by Lisowsky and Michaelis (1988). We confirmed that MTF1 encoded the specificity factor by analyzing extracts from a yeast strain bearing a disruption of the gene. The extracts contained normal levels of core RNA polymerase but lacked selective transcription activity; adding the purified 43-kDa protein restored selective transcription. Comparison of the MTF1 protein sequence to the family of bacterial sigma factors has revealed striking similarity to domains identified with--10 promoter recognition, promoter melting, and holoenzyme stability.