Thirty-three nucleotides of 5' flanking sequence including the 'TATA' box are necessary and sufficient for efficient U2 snRNA transcription in Schizosaccharomyces pombe.

We have sequenced the 5' flanking region of the U2 gene and compared this with the 5' flanking sequences of other snRNA genes from Schizosaccharomyces pombe. This revealed no regions of clear homology 5' to a region surrounding the 'TATA' box at -32 to -29. Deletion analysis shows that a 5' flanking region extending to only -33 is sufficient for accurate and efficient transcription of U2 in Schizosaccharomyces pombe.