Nucleic acid‐binding regions of the second‐largest subunit of Drosophila RNA polymerase II identified by Southwestern blotting

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Abstract
Analysing overlapping bacterially expressed fragments of the second-largest subunit of Drosophila melanogaster RNA polymerase II in Southwestern DNA binding assays we have identified regions that have the potential to bind nucleic acids non-specifically. A region exhibiting strong DNA binding is located in the N-terminal part of the molecule (amino acids 357–504) and some weak DNA binding is observed for the C-terminal part (amino acids 860–1160). The non-specific DNA binding behavior of these regions is similar to that of the native enzyme. Most of the known mutations responsible for rifampicin resistance map to a region of the Escherichia coli β subunit corresponding to the N-terminal nucleic acid-binding region, indirectly supporting the notion that this region participates in interaction with the RNA transcript in ternary complexes.