JBC, Vol. 252, Issue 3, 1092-1098, Feb, 1977
Hormonal control of transcription in the rat uterus. Stimulation of deoxyribonucleic acid-dependent RNA polymerase III by estradiol
P. A. Weil, J. Sidikaro, G. M. Stancel and S. P. Blatti
DNA-dependent RNA polymerases were extracted from rat uterine tissue,
partially purified and resolved by DEAE-Sephadex chromatography. RNA
polymerases I, II, IIIA, and IIIB eluted at the characteristic ammonium
sulfate concentrations of 0.15, 0.28, 0.34, and 0.42 M, respectively. The
sensitivity of each peak of polymerase to alpha-amanitin was examined and
was shown to be essentially identical to the three classes of RNA
polymerases in other mammalian systems. RNA polymerase I was insensitive to
high levels of alpha-amanitin, RNA polymerase II was sensitive to low
concentrations of alpha-amanitin (50% inhibition at 0.006 mug/ml) and RNA
polymerases IIIA and IIIB were sensitive to high concentrations of
alpha-amanitin (50% inhibition at 18 mug/ml). The alpha-amanitin
sensitivity curve of total RNA synthesis measured in isolated nucleo
demonstrated that the activity of each class of RNA polymerase could be
quantitated in uterine nuclei. Thus the initial decrease in activity at low
concentrations of alpha-amanitin (50% inhibition at 0.005 mug/ml) was
attributed to the inhibition of RNA polymerase II activity, the second
decrease in activity at higher concentrations of alpha-amanitin (50%
inhibition at 15 mug/ml) was attributed to the inhibition of RNA polymerase
III activity, and the activity which was resistant to the highest
alpha-amanitin concentration tested was attributed to RNA polymerase I
activity. When estradiol was given to immature rats 6 h before killing both
RNA polymerases I and III levels in nuclei were increased significantly
over the control values. The time course of these changes demonstrated that
the increases in RNA polymerases I and III were first evident between 1.5
and 3 h following hormone treatment. Significantly, these increases in
polymerase I and III in nuclei parallel the published increases for rRNA
and tRNA synthesis following hormone treatment. However, the amount of RNA
polymerase I and III was not altered upon extraction, suggesting that these
changes are due to the alteration in chromatin template activity. Both
estradiol and estriol produced identical increases in uterine RNA
polymerase I and III 6 h after treatment.