Probing close DNA contacts of RNA polymerase III transcription complexes with the photoactive nucleoside 4-thiodeoxythymidine.

Photoactive 4-thiodeoxythymidine 5'-triphosphate (4-S-dTTP) has been synthesized and used to enzymatically incorporate the corresponding nucleotide, 4-thiodeoxythymidine 5'-phosphate (4-S-dTMP), at specific positions of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae 5 S rRNA and SUP4 tRNA(Tyr) genes. RNA polymerase III transcription complexes have been assembled on this DNA and analyzed by photocrosslinking for proteins making close contact with DNA. Comparison DNA probes with a long-tether photoactive nucleotide 5-[N-(p-azidobenzoyl)-3-aminoallyl]-dUMP (N3RdUMP) incorporated at the same positions have also been analyzed, in order to compare the properties of these two crosslinking reagents. At least 10 of the 16 different S. cerevisiae polymerase III subunits make direct contact with DNA. The 120-kDa subunit of transcription factor (TF)IIIC, which is thought to play the key role in positioning TFIIIB upstream of the transcriptional start site, also contacts DNA near the transcriptional start site in TFIII(C+B) complexes with a SUP4 tRNA(Tyr) gene. The photocrosslinking patterns generated by 4-S-dTMP and N3RdUMP are distinctive, implying that these two reagents can yield complementary information about the structures of complex protein assemblies on DNA. Surprisingly, some subunits of the S. cerevisiae RNA polymerase III are crosslinked by 4-S-dTMP but not by N3RdUMP.