Nuclear proteins interact with RNA polymerase I promoter and repeated elements of the 5' external transcribed spacer of the rDNA of cucumber in a single-stranded stage.

Directly repeated elements have been characterized downstream of the transcription initiation site (TIS) in the 5' external transcribed spacer (5' ETS) of the rRNA genes of cucumber (Cucumis sativus). In order to show that these repeated elements are also involved in transcriptional regulation processes of RNA polymerase I while being single-stranded during transcription, DNA-protein binding assays were performed with synthetic oligonucleotides prepared from the promoter region as well as from the repeated elements. The single-stranded DNA of the upstream binding element (from -164 to -105), the core promoter (from -41 to +16) and a loop-forming sequence (LRE) of the repeated elements interact with the same nuclear proteins whereas another region of the repeated elements (XRE) cooperates with a different nuclear protein. Remarkably, both complementary strands show identical protein binding.